Civil rights litigation duration statistics, by court
Civil rights litigation — civil rights suits in federal court — take a median of 179 days from filing to resolution, based on 312,476 real cases in the public federal court record. Most resolve between 79 days and 2.3 years — full statistics, disposition mix, and district breakdown below.
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Filing to termination · 312,476 cases · median 179 days
How civil rights lawsuit cases end
Of 228,675 resolved cases — the observed record, not a prediction of any one case.
Civil rights litigation duration by court
Median time to resolution in the districts with the most civil rights lawsuit cases.
| District | Cases | Median | Slowest 10% |
|---|---|---|---|
| C.D. Cal. | 41,227 | 112d | 1.3 yr |
| S.D.N.Y. | 29,138 | 138d | 1.6 yr |
| S.D. Fla. | 20,178 | 77d | 272d |
| N.D. Cal. | 12,213 | 222d | 1.9 yr |
| E.D.N.Y. | 12,038 | 237d | 3.0 yr |
| M.D. Fla. | 10,014 | 126d | 1.4 yr |
| N.D. Ill. | 9,589 | 286d | 3.3 yr |
| E.D. Cal. | 7,790 | 265d | 3.2 yr |
| D.N.J. | 7,516 | 265d | 3.0 yr |
| E.D. Pa. | 6,114 | 183d | 2.0 yr |
| N.D. Ga. | 5,828 | 161d | 2.1 yr |
| D. Colo. | 5,383 | 139d | 2.1 yr |
| E.D. Mich. | 4,871 | 1.1 yr | 3.1 yr |
| S.D. Tex. | 4,628 | 250d | 2.5 yr |
| S.D. Cal. | 4,421 | 152d | 1.9 yr |
Have a specific civil rights lawsuit?
These are averages across every civil rights lawsuit. For a forecast tuned to your case — your court, your amount, your posture — get a free estimate, or the full report built from your complaint.
Other case types
Tertius, "Civil rights litigation: how long federal cases take, and how they end" (2026). Analysis of Federal Judicial Center Integrated Data Base records, 9.1M U.S. federal civil cases. https://usetertius.com/benchmarks/civil-rights-lawsuit
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. Durations are filing to termination for U.S. federal civil cases. This is observed historical data, not a prediction of any specific case, and not legal advice. Tertius forecasts timing and disposition, never merits or damages.