How long will my lawsuit take?
It's the first thing you asked. Everyone answered the same way: it depends — settle in for a while. But the job you're weighing, the move you're postponing, the money stress — none of it can wait on “it depends.” There is a realistic range for cases like yours, and you deserve to see it.
Cases like this land between 1 and 5 years. Yours is computed from your own case.
- 1Paste your complaintYour court papers — or just the basics.
- 2We read what drives timingCase type, court, and amount — read straight from your text.
- 3You get an example timelineThen yours is computed from your own case, free.
Your lawyer is being straight with you.
You still can't plan a life on “it depends.”
“It depends” is the honest answer — your case really is its own, and no one who respects you should promise a date. But every federal lawsuit leaves a public record — how it was filed, how long it ran, how it ended — and thousands of those records look like your case. Nobody can tell you your date. The record can show you the realistic range: how fast cases like yours go, how they typically go, and how slow they can run.
That's what Tertius does: a cited range to plan around — and to bring to your lawyer, not replace them.
The wait has a shape. Here it is.
Two common case types, straight from real federal records — how long they run, and how they end. Not predictions. History.
Personal injury (federal)
158,015 real cases · illustrative exampleGroup averages from 341-day median across real federal cases. Your own case is what the free preview computes.
Breach of contract
250,336 real cases · illustrative exampleGroup averages from 273-day median across real federal cases. Your own case is what the free preview computes.
Find your kind of case: personal injury · employment · breach of contract · civil rights · Social Security disability · patent
Three answers about your case.
Paste your complaint (or type the basics) and the same records are read for your case in about two minutes. Here's the whole thing, start to finish:
Product demo — an example case, not yours. Your report is built from your own court papers, free to preview.
Your realistic range
Fast, typical, and slow — a range from filing to resolution, never a single date. The typical path, plus how quick and how long it can reasonably go.
The odds it gets tossed
How often cases with your case's characteristics are dismissed before trial, as a straight percentage.
How cases like yours end
Settled, dismissed, or decided by a judge — the mix that actually happens, not the version from TV.
Two minutes, your complaint, a realistic range.
It won't tell you if you'll win.
It'll tell you how long you'll be fighting.
Anything that promises to predict your verdict is guessing. Tertius sticks to what the record can actually support — timing as a range (fast, typical, slow) and how cases like yours tend to end — tested on cases the model never saw, with its accuracy published. No verdict predictions. No promised dates. No false certainty.
Start free. Keep going if it helps.
The range preview is free. The full report is $149 — about an hour of a lawyer's time — a printable page you keep: your range, how cases like yours tend to end, and what tends to move the timing. Same link forever, prints to a clean PDF. See a sample report.
Asked and answered.
Will it tell me if I'll win?
No — and anything that claims to is guessing. Tertius doesn't predict who wins or what a case is worth. It tells you how long you're likely to be in it and how cases like yours tend to end.
Is this legal advice?
No. It's information drawn from public court records. It doesn't replace your lawyer, and it won't tell you what to do — it gives you a timeline you can plan your life around.
How do I know if my case is federal?
Look at the top of your court papers. If they say “United States District Court…,” it's federal — and Tertius covers it. A state or county court name (for example, “Superior Court of California” or “Supreme Court of the State of New York”) means state court, which isn't covered yet. Many everyday disputes — car accidents, divorce, landlord–tenant, small claims — are state cases.
Is my information private?
Yes. The preview is instant and takes no sign-up. Nothing you type is saved to your identity — we count anonymous usage only, never your case details tied to you.
What does the $149 report get me?
A page you keep, not a prediction you're sold: your realistic range with its fast and slow paths, the dismissal risk, how cases like yours resolve, what tends to push timing up or down, and the real cases yours was measured against. It stays at the same link and prints to a clean PDF — something to plan around and bring to your lawyer.
You can't control the outcome.
You can stop being in the dark.
One page, from your complaint, in about two minutes. The preview costs nothing.
Tertius forecasts timing, not merits or damages. It is not legal advice and does not predict whether you will win. U.S. federal civil cases only.
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