How Product Liability Cases End in Federal Court: Trials, Settlements and MDLs

Of 928,375 final resolutions of federal product liability cases in fiscal years 2005 through 2025, 934 were trial verdicts, or 0.10%. Most ended in a voluntary dismissal (41.0%) or a dismissal coded as settled (27.9%). In the trials with a recorded winner, plaintiffs won 29.6%.

• 0.10%Resolved cases ending in a trial verdict
• 30%Trials with a recorded winner won by plaintiffs
• 79%Case filings with an MDL docket number

1. Trials are rare

   Only 934 of 928,375 final resolutions were jury, directed or bench verdicts (0.10%). Even without the largest MDL, the share was 0.17%.

2. Trials have become rarer

   Federal courts recorded 82 product liability trial verdicts in fiscal 2005 and 18 in fiscal 2025. Over the first five fiscal years there were 314, over the last five 130.

3. Defendants win most trials

   Plaintiffs won 248 and defendants 591 of the 839 trials with a recorded winner. Judgments on motions before trial went to the defendant in 93.0% of cases with a recorded winner.

4. Most filings carry an MDL number

   78.5% of the 1,159,584 product liability case filings carried a multidistrict litigation (MDL) docket number, and the ten largest MDLs account for 59.2% of all filings.

5. One MDL dominates the count

   The 3M Combat Arms Earplug Products Liability Litigation (MDL No. 2885) accounts for 394,304 filings, 34.0% of the national total, and 42.5% of all final resolutions.

6. Many cases were still open

   186,155 product liability cases filed between October 2004 and September 30, 2025 had not been resolved by that date; 88.1% of them belong to an MDL.

There were 82 trial verdicts in fiscal 2005 and 18 in fiscal 2025, while product liability filings went from 27,149 to 43,891.

Fiscal 2025 ended September 30, 2025. Fiscal 2026 is incomplete and not shown.

The Northern District of Florida recorded 399,375 filings (34.4%), the Southern District of West Virginia 132,015 and the District of New Jersey 111,172. Together the three account for 55.4% of the national total.

• Integrated Database (IDB) — Federal Judicial Center
• Integrated Data Base: Civil Documentation (codebook, 1988 forward) — Federal Judicial Center
• Table C-2: U.S. District Courts, Civil Cases Commenced, by Basis of Jurisdiction and Nature of Suit (Judicial Business 2024) — Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts
• Table C-4: U.S. District Courts, Civil Cases Terminated, by Nature of Suit and Action Taken (Judicial Business 2024) — Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts
• Civil Nature of Suit Code Descriptions — Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts
• About the Panel — Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation
• Multidistrict Litigation — U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia
• MDL-1657 Vioxx Products Liability Litigation — U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana

• Independent analysis. Settlement Insight is not a law firm and not affiliated with any agency named here. Analysis by Leonard Goldberg, Editor. How we work: methodology, our data.