How long do federal lawsuits take?
Median time from filing to resolution for U.S. federal civil cases, by type, from the public court record. Pick a case type for the full range, how those cases end, and durations by court.
| Case type | Cases | Median | Slowest 10% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prisoner petitions | 573,280 | 191d | 2.8 yr | details → |
| Employment litigation | 348,862 | 285d | 2.3 yr | details → |
| Civil rights litigation | 312,476 | 179d | 2.3 yr | details → |
| Breach of contract | 308,088 | 273d | 2.3 yr | details → |
| Personal injury (federal) | 218,613 | 341d | 2.7 yr | details → |
| Social Security appeals | 204,499 | 1.0 yr | 1.6 yr | details → |
| Other torts (federal) | 191,334 | 180d | 1.7 yr | details → |
| Other federal statutory | 169,814 | 202d | 2.7 yr | details → |
| Product liability (federal) | 142,474 | 2.8 yr | 6.0 yr | details → |
| Immigration litigation | 102,493 | 86d | 315d | details → |
| Trademark & copyright | 100,463 | 150d | 1.6 yr | details → |
| Real property (federal) | 68,192 | 173d | 2.6 yr | details → |
| Patent litigation | 46,705 | 212d | 2.8 yr | details → |
| Securities litigation | 16,368 | 182d | 3.9 yr | details → |
| False Claims Act | 12,050 | 1.9 yr | 6.6 yr | details → |
| Antitrust litigation | 5,020 | 1.8 yr | 8.0 yr | details → |
| Trade secret litigation | 3,651 | 348d | 3.4 yr | details → |
Unlike most published figures, these are censoring-honest: still-pending cases are counted (Kaplan–Meier), so slow cases can't quietly vanish from the percentiles. Cross-checked against the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts' own published statistics.
Forecast your own case
These are averages. For your specific case — your court, amount, and posture — get a free estimate in seconds, or the full report built from your complaint.
Tertius, "Federal civil litigation duration benchmarks, by case type" (2026). Analysis of Federal Judicial Center Integrated Data Base records, 9.1M U.S. federal civil cases. https://usetertius.com/benchmarks
Free to cite with attribution — a link back to this page lets readers verify the numbers.
Source: data/fjc/civil.parquet (Federal Judicial Center), cleaned by Tertius · model tertius-acta-6. Filing-to-termination durations for U.S. federal civil cases. Observed historical data, not a prediction of any specific case, and not legal advice.