A new report highlighting trends in federal district courts and appellate courts indicates insurance litigation continues to increase, especially relating to business liability policy, hurricane-related and homeowners policy cases.

The 2023 Insurance Litigation Report, released by Lex Machina, examined emerging trends in case filings, venues, judges, law firms, parties, timing metrics, case resolutions, findings, and damages, during a three-year period from 2020 to 2022.

“This report reveals an interesting trend in which insurance cases have increased over the last three years,” said Ronald Porter, Lex Machina’s insurance legal data expert and editor of the report.

There were 18,912 insurance cases litigated in federal district courts in 2022, a 30 percent increase over the prior year, the report noted.

During the three-year period, the highest number of insurance cases was filed in the Western District of Louisiana. Analysis revealed Judge Cain, from the same district, was the most active judge for insurance cases.

State Farm Fire and Casualty Company topped the list for both the most active plaintiff and most active defendant in insurance litigated cases.

MMA Law Firm was the most active plaintiff’s counsel recorded during that time period, while Porteous, Hainkel & Johnson represented defendants in the highest number of insurance cases.

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Of the federal appellate court appeals filed on insurance-related cases, 23 percent were reversed.

Damages in Approved Class Action Settlements totaled $530 million between 2020 to 2022.

“Our data and analytics supported the data-driven insights that recent natural and economic phenomena, such as hurricanes, wildfires, a pandemic, and rising building costs, likely bolstered recent insurance case filings,” said Porter.