Has the COVID-19 pandemic prompted a rise in class action employment lawsuits? Not yet, according to the numbers. For now, COVID employment litigation has been comprised mostly of single-plaintiff claims. Whether the dam will hold, however, remains to be seen.

A powerful tool. Users can compare federal and state filings, drill down by class actions or individual claims, view the number of complaints filed per week, or the cumulative count of all complaints to see how they have changed (or held steady) over time. Users can highlight an individual state to review a list of every complaint filed, organized by category, view more detailed information about an individual complaint, and compare the ratio of COVID incidences in a given locale to COVID litigation.

What the data shows. According to the latest Lit-Watch data (updated most recently on September 28):

• There have been 727 employment-related complaints filed in state and federal courts alleging COVID-19 related claims.
• Of the complaints filed, 45 have been asserted as proposed class or collective actions, just six percent of complaint filings.
• Two-thirds of COVID-related employment claims have been filed in state courts.
• There was a sharp spike of case filings at the end of August; however, new suits have leveled off in recent weeks.
• By a significant margin, the healthcare industry has faced the largest number of overall complaints.
• As for potential class actions, there is no clear leader, but suits against employers in the hospitality/restaurant and retail industries were more likely than other industries to be defending class actions.
• Disability, leave, and accommodation claims comprise the greatest number of individual COVID-19-complaints.
• Wage and hour claims constitute the bulk of class claims (consistent with employment class litigation generally), with workplace safety claims second.
• It will be no surprise that the majority of cases are brought in California. However, a clear majority of class action COVID cases have been filed in Florida.

Click here to access the COVID-19 Employment Lit-Watch.