Statistics on Contracts Cases

• Plaintiffs win in about 66% of contracts trials.
• The median damage award for plaintiff winners in contract trials was $35,000.
• Trials involving business plaintiffs were more likely to be decided by a
  judge (72%) than cases involving individual plaintiffs (58%).
• Approximately 1 out of 10 defendants appeared without legal representation in contract trials.

These and other statistics based on a 2005 Civil Justice Survey of State Courts are reported in a new document from the US Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Contract Bench and Jury Trials in State Courts, 2005 reviews statistics from 8,917 contracts cases heard in state courts of general jurisdiction. These cases represent a third of all disposed civil trial cases based on a "nationally representative sample of urban, suburban, and rural jurisdictions."

Additional statistics deal with types of plaintiffs (individuals and businesses), median awards, punitive and compensatory damages, and types of contract issues:

• employment discrimination and other employment disputes
  
• fraud
• mortgage foreclosure
• partnership disputes
  
• rental/lease
• subrogation
  
• tortious interference