Nearly all US class action cases resolve through settlement or procedural outcomes without ever going to trial, according to a new study from Lex Machina.
The 2026 Class Action Litigation Report found that since 2023, around 95% of class actions were typically resolved long before going to trial, highlighting a system that is mostly driven by negotiations, cost pressures and procedural leverage, Lex Machina says.
Out of all district court cases between 2023 and 2025, 2,333 reached class certification, 1,788 cases were settled, 1,264 reached summary judgment and just 109 cases went to trial.
Even so, class action case filings show no signs of declining. Case filings jumped sharply in 2025, increasing almost 25% to 12,284, the fourth straight year of case rises. That was mainly driven by a roughly 50% surge in consumer protection class action cases, which LexMachina says continues the rising trend of data breach-related filings since 2022. Civil rights class action cases also rose slightly after two years of declines.
Total class action settlement damages awarded in 2025 hit almost $10.9bn, up from $9.9bn a year earlier.
Apple was the most active defendant by cases filed in 2025 with 38, up from 16 a year earlier. Walmart was next with 37, followed by the USA with 35 and Amazon.com Services LLC and Target Corporation with 29 each.
Walmart remained the most active defendant overall since 2023, with 166 cases against it, followed by Amazon.com Services LLC (Amazon’s US-focused subsidiary) with 94, and Apple and Meta both with 85. Amazon.com Inc. (Amazon’s holding company) was next on 83.
For cases that concluded on substantive grounds, defendants won almost four times more often than plaintiffs, mainly through judgment on the pleadings and summary judgment.
Lex Machina said that many putative class actions reach a negotiated resolution before motions for class certification are filed or ruled upon, with district judges often granting class certification for limited purposes such as settlement.
Lex Machina added that at the class certification stage, defendants have been most successful since 2023 by arguing that plaintiffs had failed to satisfy Rule 23(b)(3) related to predominance and superiority.
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