Class action litigation across New England reached historic levels in 2025, continuing a multiyear upward trend in filings in state and federal courts within the First Circuit.
Pierce Atwood’s Class Action Tracker recorded 604 total class action filings in 2025, a 15% increase from 2024 and the highest annual total to date. Fourth-quarter activity remained strong, with 140 filings during Q4 alone, representing a 10% increase over the same period in 2024.
These figures confirm that the sharp rise in class litigation observed in recent years is not an anomaly but part of a sustained shift in the regional litigation landscape. Companies operating in New England should anticipate continued exposure to class litigation across a range of sectors and legal theories.
Five-Year Class Action Filing Trends
The 2025 totals cap a notable five-year trajectory in which class action filings initially declined during the COVID-19 pandemic before rebounding sharply. Regional filings neared pre-pandemic levels in 2023 and exceeded prior record levels in both 2024 and 2025.
The resulting trend resembles a nascent “J-curve,” reflecting both the pandemic-era slowdown and the subsequent rebound in filing activity. Importantly, the increase persists even when excluding transferred multidistrict litigation filings, indicating that the growth reflects genuine regional filing activity rather than procedural consolidation effects.
For companies operating in New England, the data suggests that class action litigation has entered a sustained growth phase. The region now regularly experiences filing levels that exceed pre-pandemic norms, and current trajectories indicate that elevated levels of litigation are likely to continue.
Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Litigation Lead Federal Filings
Consistent with national trends, data security and privacy claims dominated federal class action filings in 2025, accounting for 171 total cases. These suits frequently arise from alleged data breaches involving personally identifiable information, businesses’ use of digital data collection technologies, and unsolicited consumer communications.
Other notable categories of federal class action filings included:
- Labor and employment claims (55 filings)
- Consumer and product liability actions (34 filings)
- Civil rights and environmental claims (24 filings)
- Antitrust claims (21 filings)
- Securities and ERISA claims (20 filings)
While the overall distribution of case types generally mirrors trends observed in prior years, 2025 saw a measurable increase in civil rights class actions, particularly those brought against government defendants. The continued prevalence of cybersecurity and privacy litigation reflects both the growing frequency of data breach events and the evolving regulatory and statutory landscape governing consumer data.
Industries Facing the Greatest Exposure
Federal class action filings in 2025 most frequently targeted defendants in the health care, financial services, technology, and retail sectors, industries that often maintain large volumes of consumer data and therefore face heightened cybersecurity and privacy compliance risks.
The industries most frequently named as defendants in federal class actions included:
- Health care (72 filings)
- Financial and professional services (57 filings)
- Technology and telecommunications (46 filings)
- Retail and manufacturing (38 filings)
- Government entities (23 filings)
- Biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies (19 filings)
The rise in cases targeting government defendants represents one of the most notable shifts from the prior year. Otherwise, the overall industry distribution remained consistent with the patterns observed in 2024.
Massachusetts Continues to Dominate Regional Filings
Geographically, class action litigation in New England remains heavily concentrated in Massachusetts courts. In 2025, 282 of the region’s 370 federal class action filings—more than 76%— were filed in the District of Massachusetts, far exceeding filings in the other First Circuit district courts.
State court filings show a similar pattern. Massachusetts state courts accounted for 191 of the region’s 234 state class action filings in 2025, representing more than 80% of all state-court class actions filed in New England.
Although smaller in absolute numbers, federal filings in Rhode Island, Maine, and New Hampshire also increased during 2025. The District of Rhode Island experienced particularly notable growth relative to prior years.
Key Takeaways for Companies
The 2025 filing data highlights several developments that companies operating in New England should monitor closely:
- Class action activity is accelerating. Regional filings have increased steadily since 2023 and now exceed pre-pandemic levels by a significant margin.
- Privacy and cybersecurity litigation remain dominant drivers. Data breach claims and consumer privacy actions continue to generate the highest volume of filings.
- Certain industries face heightened exposure. Health care, financial services, technology, and retail companies remain frequent targets, in part due to their handling of sensitive consumer information.
- Massachusetts remains the epicenter of regional class litigation. Both federal and state courts in Massachusetts account for the vast majority of filings in the First Circuit region.
The sustained growth in class action filings across New England suggests that businesses should continue to expect an active plaintiffs’ bar and an expanding range of theories supporting class claims. As privacy regulation evolves, courts construe long-standing statutes in new contexts, and data-driven business models expand, the litigation landscape is likely to remain dynamic in the coming year.
