Lex Machina Releases 2023 Real Property Litigation Report

The trend of real property case filings has exhibited a general decrease over the last eight years with a small uptick in 2022, reflecting the depressing effect of the pandemic and the recent recovery

Menlo Park, CA — Lex Machina, a LexisNexis company, today releases its annual Real Property Litigation Report. The report examines trends in real property litigation in federal district courts and appellate courts. Focusing on the five-year period from 2018 to 2022, it surveys emerging trends in case filings, venues, judges, law firms, attorneys, parties, timing metrics, case resolutions, findings, and damages. The report often focuses on different sets of data, e.g., filtering cases in order to provide analytics on general real property cases and federal appellate real property cases.

“Real property litigation is a practice area that is impacted by multiple complex factors, particularly in recent years,” said Ellen Chen, Lex Machina’s real property legal data expert and editor of the report. “By understanding real property litigation patterns over time, especially after filtering to specific subsets of cases, we can gain data-driven insights into the likely impact of different external factors and circumstances on real property litigation.”

Highlights from the report include:

In 2022, 3,452 real property cases were litigated in federal district courts, a 27% increase from the number of cases filed the year before in 2021, and a decrease of 63% from the highest number of cases filed in any year over the past decade in 2013.
In the five-year period from 2018 to 2022, the highest number of real property cases was filed in the Central District of California, while Judge Martinotti from the District of New Jersey was the most active judge for real property cases.
In the five-year period from 2018 to 2022, Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. was the most active defendant.
For real property cases that were appealed to a federal appellate court and terminated from 2018 to 2022 with a decision on the merits of the appeal, 17% were ultimately reversed.
$1.9 billion in total damages were awarded as Contract Damages in 2,997 cases from 2018 to 2022.

Lex Machina’s reports and software enable practitioners to devise data-driven litigation strategies. The metrics in this report can help readers decide who to pursue as clients, whether to file a particular motion, or when to settle (and for how much). This research supplements traditional legal research and anecdotal data for a competitive edge in court.

About LexisNexis Legal & Professional
LexisNexis Legal & Professional® provides legal, regulatory, and business information and analytics that help customers increase their productivity, improve decision-making, achieve better outcomes, and advance the rule of law around the world. As a digital pioneer, the company was the first to bring legal and business information online with its Lexis® and Nexis® services. LexisNexis Legal & Professional, which serves customers in more than 150 countries with 11,300 employees worldwide, is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers.

About Lex Machina
Lex Machina fundamentally changes how companies and law firms compete in the business and practice of law. The company provides strategic insights on judges, lawyers, law firms, parties, and other critical information across 20 federal practice areas and a rapidly growing number of state courts. Lex Machina allows law firms and companies to anticipate the behaviors and outcomes that different legal strategies will produce, enabling them to win cases and close business.
Lex Machina was named one of “Legal Tech’s Most Promising Solution Providers” (CIO Review Awards 2022), “Greater Bay Area Top Workplaces 2022” (The San Francisco Chronicle Top Workplaces in the Bay Area 2022), “Legal Tech Company of the Year 2021" (CIO Review, 2021), “2021 Legal Technology Trailblazer” (National Law Journal Trailblazer Awards, 2021), Winner of the “Media Excellence” Award for Analytics/Big Data (13th Annual Media Excellence Award, 2021). Based in Silicon Valley, Lex Machina is part of LexisNexis, a leading global provider of legal, regulatory, and business information and analytics. For more information, please visit www.lexmachina.com.