As I always emphasize, our data are incomplete:
- We know that we don’t have all the state Covid Coverage cases because nobody has a good system for finding those cases. We think that we’re finding out about all or most of the dismissal orders because of our readers (thank you!!), but we can’t be sure.
- We know that our state court data aren’t up to date even on the state cases that we do know about, because too many state electronic dockets are terrible or cost too much to access or both. Again, we think that we’re finding out about all or most of the dismissal orders because of our readers (thank you, again!!), but we can’t be sure.
- Because we are human, we are not as up to date with federal cases as automated systems like (our favorite) Lex Machina. We’re pretty sure that we have all the dismissal orders, and almost as sure that we have all the voluntary dismissals (perhaps with a lag of a week or so), but we can’t be sure.
- Because we are human, we make coding mistakes (but so do the automated systems, as we have discovered).
Strongly in our favor, we know lots of things about the federal cases that the automated systems do not. And we are doing more to figure out what’s happening in the state cases than anyone else who is publicly reporting their findings. (I expect that insurers with lots of exposure know more than we do, and not only about their own cases, but those data are under wraps.)
With those caveats, here is what our data are telling us right now about the answers and dismissal events in the business interruption cases:
- There are 216 cases in which at least one insurer has filed an answer and not filed a motion to dismiss, suggesting that those cases are proceeding toward the summary judgment phase of the litigation.
- As shown in the table below, 197 cases have been voluntarily dropped, 43 cases have been ordered dismissed without prejudice, and 99 cases have been ordered dismissed with prejudice.
The true number of cases that are proceeding toward the summary judgment phase of the litigation almost certainly is higher than our data indicate, because we don’t have good state court data on answers and dismissal motions. For the same reason, the true number of voluntary dismissals is likely to be higher than our data indicate. By contrast, our data regarding “on the merits” dismissal orders should be very close to the mark.
Dismissal Event |
Number of Cases |
|
Voluntary Dismissal |
197 |
|
Order of Dismissal Without Prejudice |
43 |
|
On the Merits |
Not on the Merits |
|
26 |
17 |
|
Order of Dismissal With Prejudice |
99 |
|
On the Merits |
Not on the Merits |
|
87 |
12 |
|
The numbers in this table don’t line up exactly with those on the judicial rulings page because (a) a case only appears in this table if all the defendants have been dismissed and (b) the judicial rulings page doesn’t include dismissals that are not on the merits.
