How long does a personal injury lawsuit take?
Personal injury (federal) — federal personal-injury and product-liability suits — take a median of 1.3 years from filing to resolution, based on 361,087 real cases in the public federal court record. Most resolve between 217 days and 4.5 years — here's the full picture.
Filing to termination · 361,087 cases · median 472 days
How personal injury lawsuit cases end
Of 394,134 resolved cases — the observed record, not a prediction of any one case.
Personal injury (federal) duration by court
Median time to resolution in the districts with the most personal injury lawsuit cases.
| District | Cases | Median | Slowest 10% |
|---|---|---|---|
| E.D. La. | 21,646 | 3.9 yr | 6.3 yr |
| S.D. Fla. | 14,258 | 180d | 1.3 yr |
| D.N.J. | 14,181 | 1.5 yr | 4.0 yr |
| E.D. Pa. | 13,119 | 295d | 2.9 yr |
| C.D. Cal. | 10,315 | 198d | 1.8 yr |
| S.D. Tex. | 10,273 | 1.0 yr | 2.1 yr |
| E.D.N.Y. | 8,568 | 1.1 yr | 3.6 yr |
| N.D. Tex. | 8,559 | 1.3 yr | 7.4 yr |
| S.D.N.Y. | 8,471 | 357d | 3.0 yr |
| M.D. Fla. | 8,048 | 287d | 1.9 yr |
| D. Minn. | 7,903 | 1.8 yr | 5.4 yr |
| N.D. Ga. | 7,677 | 320d | 2.6 yr |
| N.D. Ill. | 7,081 | 1.1 yr | 3.2 yr |
| D. Mass. | 6,814 | 2.1 yr | 4.5 yr |
| E.D. Mo. | 6,512 | 77d | 1.8 yr |
Have a specific personal injury lawsuit?
These are averages across every personal injury 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
Source: data/fjc/civil.parquet (Federal Judicial Center), cleaned by Tertius · model tertius-acta-3. 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.