U.S. Court of Federal Claims — Judicial Business 2019

The U.S. Court of Federal Claims has nationwide jurisdiction over a variety of monetary claims against the federal government, including those involving tax refunds, federal taking of private property for public use, pay and dismissal of federal civilian employees, pay and dismissal of military personnel, land claims brought by Native Americans and/or their tribe(s), contract disputes, bid protests, patents and copyright, congressional reference, and the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Act. Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 791(c), each January the clerk of court transmits to Congress a statement of all the judgments rendered, which notes the names of the claimants, the amounts, the dates of entry and nature of the claims, and the dispositions for all judgments rendered the previous fiscal year.

Filings in this court decreased 8 percent to 2,044 in 2019. General jurisdiction cases dropped 23 percent to 757. Many of the general jurisdiction cases were of increased complexity; for example, 26 percent of the general jurisdiction cases filed this fiscal year contained multiple plaintiffs, and more than 10 percent involved intervening parties. Contract/injunction cases declined 13 percent to 148. Vaccine compensation cases increased 4 percent to 1,287.

Total case terminations fell 4 percent to 1,466. Vaccine case terminations rose 10 percent to 829 cases. Pending cases increased 15 percent to 4,217.

Filings in 2019 were 42 percent higher than in 2015. Case filings under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Act have climbed 59 percent from 809 petitions in 2015 to 1,287 petitions in 2019.

For data on filings in the Court of Federal Claims, see Tables G-2A and G-2B.