A surge in Commercial Court claims has helped push the volume of High Court filings to its highest level for an opening quarter since before 2019, according to Solomonic’s latest litigation data.
Litigation claims in the High Court and the Competition Appeal Tribunal jumped 15% in Q1 from the same period a year ago, with 2,192 claims filed.
While that represented a slight decline in volume from Q4 2025, when 2,220 claims were filed, it is the second-highest quarterly figure during the period tracked by Solomonic’s research (see graph below).
The Commercial Court was a notable hot spot for claims, with filings up by 44% from Q4 2025 to 144. That represented a 71% year-on-year increase for the opening quarter.
Meanwhile, there was a marked increase in the number of claims involving professional services firms in the quarter, up by 45% from Q1 2025 to 300.
The professional services sector accounted for the most claims in the quarter, followed by banking and finance, the public sector, real estate, and construction and infrastructure (see graph below).
Financial pressures continued to weigh on businesses, with the Insolvency and Companies List seeing 4,100 new actions in the first quarter, making it the busiest start to a year since 2020. That was mostly driven by winding-up petitions, accounting for 53% of insolvency filings in Q1 – a 12% increase from the final quarter of 2025.
Anna Myrvang, a London-based commercial disputes partner at Clyde & Co, said the practical impact of the high claims volumes tracked by Solomonic was “already evident, particularly in delays to the earliest hearing and trial dates”.
She added: “As we’ve seen during other periods of economic downturn, the data shows a particular uptick in insolvency-related claims, as well as in claims against professionals. Given ongoing market turbulence, this is likely to persist, especially as the impacts of recent disruptions are expected to materialise in claims later this year rather than immediately.”
London legal aid firm Kesar & Co led the rankings for law firm claims filings during the first quarter. Kesar & Co issued 53 claims on behalf of claimants, topping the list for claimant activity and the overall number of filings. That was driven by a surge of claims predominantly against the Ministry of Justice, Solomonic said, making it a new entrant in the rankings.
Clyde & Co – which topped the rankings last year – followed in second place overall, having worked on 44 claims, 27 on the claimant side and 17 on the defendant side. DAC Beachcroft was third, having worked on 33 claims, 13 on the claimant side and 20 on the defendant side, helping it top the list of firms representing defendants in Q1.
Hill Dickinson and DWF completed the top five overall, working on 28 and 26 claims respectively.
Clyde & Co was second in the rankings for top claimant law firms, with Barings third on 25 claims, boosted by a rush of Covid-19 business interruption filings ahead of the 31 March deadline, Solomonic said. Rothley Law and Mishcon de Reya completed the top five claimant law firms, having both worked on 19 claims in Q1.
Clyde & Co was also second in the rankings for top defendant firms, joint with Keoghs on 17. DWF and Kennedys completed the top five, working on 16 and 15 claims respectively.
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