The UK litigation landscape: H1 2024 key trends and developments
Caution is the watchword in the absence of any standout new issue around which a new seam of disputes has flowed in the first half of 2024. The Solomonic Half-year Review 2024, out now, unpacks the numbers behind claim volumes, high value litigation, law firm movers and shakers and much more.
Solomonic, the UK’s leading litigation data and analytics platform, has today released a comprehensive half-year report covering the first six months of 2024 in litigation activity across the courts. The report reveals the key trends and analytics on over 3,500 new claims issued in the civil courts of England and Wales and the Competition Appeal Tribunal, offering insights into the evolving litigation landscape.
2024 has continued where 2023 left off, with global political uncertainty and conflict, economic challenges and climate disruption. The consequence for litigators has been more of the same, though the peaks for Covid related business interruption cases and aviation lease disputes are perhaps likely to have passed. Although the ostensible impact of the PACCAR decision has been declared to be limited, we have seen fewer group actions (almost always funded), fewer new claims issued in the CAT and, aside from insolvencies, slightly depressed volumes of new disputes.
This does not mean the industry has not been very busy, with the financial, construction and professional services sectors seeing substantial volumes of new cases. In the absence of any standout new issue around which a new seam of disputes has flowed, we have reported a diverse range of disputes, including new collective actions in the CAT, contractual breach claims and intellectual property disputes.
The courts have seen the usual law firms do battle on behalf of their clients, with the top firms relatively unchanged from their 2023 rankings. However, there has been some shift with seven firms entering the top 30. While US firms have been busy acquiring disputes teams and partners, this has not yet fully translated into claim activity, although they are firmly engaged in some of the highest value disputes.
As we move into the second half of the year, a US presidential election, the ongoing crisis in the Middle East, the continuing Russo-Ukrainian war, and rising concern about the climate change crisis mean continued global economic uncertainty. It also suggests that funding for litigation is likely to continue to be invested cautiously. While caution may be the watchword, we expect to see similar levels of work for the disputes sector through the rest of the year.