U.S. District Judge Robert L. Pitman
AUSTIN - More than 12,000 consumer protection lawsuits have been filed in federal courts so far this year, a pace that is set to beat 2025’s record high, according to Lex Machina’s latest report.
The report found that federal consumer protection filings rose 31 percent for 20,353 cases filed in 2025, the highest annual total in the past ten years. In 2026, nearly 5,000 putative class actions have already been filed.
Through 2023 to 2025, Judge Allison Burroughs of the District of Massachusetts has been the most active court with 344 cases. Judge Robert Lee Pitman of the Western District of Texas ranked third with 308 cases.
Judge Pitman has presided over a range of consumer protection claims in recent years, primarily in cases filed against credit-reporting companies and debt collectors, according to the report.
Overall, Texas is one the more popular venues for such claims, says Adam Masarek, legal marketing manager at Lex Machina.
“Texas accounted for a quarter of the nation’s 12 busiest consumer protection districts, with federal debt collection claims appearing in 34 percent of Southern District cases and Telephone Consumer Protection Act claims in 31 percent of Western District cases,” Masarek said.
The report found TCPA filings jumped 63 percent. Plaintiffs filed 2,748 cases alleging TCPA violations, up from 1,682 in 2024. The upswing has continued into the first half of 2026, with plaintiffs filing another 1,658 TCPA lawsuits.
The report also found that fewer cases produced substantially higher damage awards. Recorded principal damage awards increased 35 percent to approximately $7.5 billion, excluding costs, fees, expenses, and interest.
The number of cases with awards declined from 452 in 2024 to 437 in 2025. A single $2.5 billion consent judgment accounted for approximately one-third of the 2025 total.
The report’s analysis explores trends in 165,443 consumer protection cases in federal district courts and 8,502 federal circuit court cases docketed from 2016 through 2025, plus observations for cases filed so far in 2026.
It includes hard numbers that capture the timing, outcomes, findings, and damage awards for each case, along with the experience of the attorneys, law firms, judges, and litigants involved.
