State court caseloads dropped sharply when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and governments shut down in April and May, although the types of cases that tend to involve corporations saw smaller decreases, according to Lex Machina data released Thursday.
Lex Machina foundthat civil case filings across nine court systems during the shutdown in states including California, Texas and Delaware plunged 53% in April and 49% in May from the same periods last year.
But those changes were not uniform. In Texas and California, smaller cases experienced larger drops than ones involving higher dollar figures, which tend to include corporate disputes, the data showed.
In Harris County, county court filings dropped 62% year-over-year in May, while district court filings fell 28%.
