AUSTIN — While California absolutely dominates when it comes to product liability filings, the Western of District of Texas was the second-leading venue, according to Lex Machina’s 2026 Product Liability Litigation Report.
The report found that from 2023 to 2025 more new product liability lawsuits were filed in federal district courts than those for intellectual property, labor & employment, and civil rights combined.
Over the same period, court-ordered awards and approved class action settlements in federal product liability cases exceeded $6.37 billion in principal damages.
The report also found product liability litigation trends in the U.S. remain top-heavy, as court-ordered damage awards on claims for product liability nearly reached $3 billion in 2025, with $2.53 billion of that total awarded to the plaintiffs in a single case: Brogdon et al v. Ford Motor Company.
The plaintiffs in the litigation claimed that a Ford truck had an unsafe roof design that failed during a rollover crash.
Together, two MDLs accounted for more than 450,000 federal lawsuits from 2016 to 2025, In re 3M Combat Arms Earplug litigation, and In re Johnson & Johnson Talcum Powder Products.
“Product liability litigation rarely follows one simple path,” said Eric Wright, senior vice president for Lex Machina. “In the latest data, the trends behind case volume, duration, and damages vary sharply between MDL and non-MDL matters, different types of claims, and individual venues.
“The report gives legal and risk professionals a clear view of those differences, while Lex Machina lets them apply that same level of detail to the judges, parties, counsel, outcomes, and damages that matter most to their own work.”
The report shows that Texas’ Western District fielded 555 non-MDL product liability cases from 2023 to 2025, topping every other federal district outside California.
Judge Robert Lee Pitman of the Western District led all federal courts nationwide with 339 product liability cases between 2023 and 2025.
The top venue spot is the Central District of California, which received 3,004 non-MDL product liability cases from 2023 through 2025, or 21.2 percent of the national total and more than three times the volume of any other federal district. California’s four federal districts together accounted for more than one-third of all such cases.
