Tort Filing Trends

Point of Law notes that federal non-asbestos products filings are rising (from around 6,000 in 1995 to around 29,000 in 2005) as a response to claims that tort claims more generally are falling.  Of course, tort law is largely a state matter (with diversity cases and, now, CAFA moving many cases to the federal courts). 

So what do we know about state filings?

While it’s not as specific as the federal data are (PoL cites non-asbestos products cases, which I agree represent a useful metric – probably more useful than just tort cases), we can also look at some state data. 

In 29 states, there were just shy of 571,000 tort cases in 1994 and just over 542,000 in 2003; given population trends, that is clearly a drop.  That said, the NCSC does not appear to provide a way to break it down further into, for example, non-asbestos products cases, so I’m not sure at this point what smaller trends it may reflect.

[Update: Ted has updated the PoL post to acknowledge the state law role in tort litigations, so some of the above doesn’t make sense.]