Over the past several years, fewer and fewer civil cases have proceeded to trial. In 1962, 11.5 percent of federal civil cases went to trial, but by 2002, that figure had dropped to only 1.8 percent. In Multnomah County over the past six years, only 0.68 percent of civil cases were resolved by trial. While most statistics do not distinguish between different types of civil cases, it’s likely that the number of construction defect cases going to trial is even less than the average of all civil cases. In a recent article in Idaho Business Review, Stoel Rives attorney Kenneth Childs discusses the reasons for this decline in civil trials.
Read the full article at the Idaho Business Review website.
“Civil Trials Are Disappearing in the U.S.” was originally published by the Daily Journal of Commerce, August 14, 2013, and was subsequently published by Idaho Business Review, August 22, 2013.