Employment litigation duration statistics, by court

Name: Employment litigation duration statistics by U.S. district
Creator: Tertius

Employment litigation — employment and labor suits (discrimination, FLSA, ERISA) in federal court — take a median of 285 days from filing to resolution, based on 348,862 real cases in the public federal court record. Most resolve between 148 days and 2.3 years — full statistics, disposition mix, and district breakdown below.

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Median

285d

Faster 25%

148d

Slower 25%

1.4 yr

Slowest 10%

2.3 yr

Filing to termination · 348,862 cases · median 285 days

How employment lawsuit cases end

Of 311,693 resolved cases — the observed record, not a prediction of any one case.

44%settle· typically 271d

31%are dismissed· typically 212d

18%reach judgment· typically 1.2 yr

5%transfer or stay (incl. MDL)· typically 190d

2%are remanded· typically 84d

Employment litigation duration by court

Median time to resolution in the districts with the most employment lawsuit cases.

District	Cases	Median	Slowest 10%
S.D.N.Y.	20,641	296d	2.8 yr
N.D. Ill.	18,021	263d	2.5 yr
C.D. Cal.	16,942	230d	1.8 yr
S.D. Fla.	16,775	147d	1.0 yr
E.D.N.Y.	16,152	1.0 yr	3.2 yr
M.D. Fla.	14,553	218d	1.5 yr
E.D. Pa.	13,685	216d	1.7 yr
N.D. Ga.	10,171	276d	2.2 yr
D.N.J.	10,047	294d	2.6 yr
S.D. Tex.	8,592	339d	2.2 yr
N.D. Cal.	8,406	311d	2.7 yr
D. Md.	6,665	285d	2.4 yr
E.D. Mich.	6,239	314d	2.3 yr
S.D. Ohio	6,116	339d	2.9 yr
D. Minn.	6,063	282d	1.7 yr

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Other case types

Patent litigation Breach of contract Antitrust litigation Civil rights litigation Trademark & copyright Trade secret litigation Securities litigation False Claims Act Product liability (federal)Personal injury (federal)Other torts (federal)Social Security appeals Immigration litigation Prisoner petitions Real property (federal)Other federal statutory

Cite this data

Tertius, "Employment 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/employment-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.