Founded in 1966, the Central District of California is the busiest and most populous judicial district in the country, containing half of California’s total population. Prior, California was only divided into the Northern and Southern Districts, but then Congress passed a resolution creating the Central and Eastern Districts. At the time, the Central received ten judgeships from the Southern District and three from the Northern. Today it encompasses seven counties: Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura. This analysis examines all civil cases filed in the district from January 2019 through April 2023.
Looking at the total cases over time, there has been a slight decline in monthly cases, though the variance is considerable. Unlike the Southern District of New York, the Central District of California’s COVID lockdown dip only lasted a single month.
Over this period, the plurality of cases had the Nature of Suit code (NOS) 446 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) – Other, followed by 190 Contract – Other, 440 Civil Rights – Other, 442 Civil Rights – Jobs, and 530 Habeas Corpus. Definitions for all federal Nature of Suit codes can be found here. Of the aforementioned case types, only 446 and 190 seem to closely follow the overall monthly trends for the district.
The 446 Americans with Disabilities Act – Other cases cover ADA claims unrelated to employment; for example, an individual suing a restaurant for not having ADA-compliant seating would fall under this NOS code.
Anonymous Doe defendants top the list of most prolific filers in the District. Most of these cases are brought by individual parties against other individual parties, though the plurality of these cases have anonymous defendants listed in legal documents as a Doe.
Of the plaintiff parties, serial ADA filers Brian Whitaker, Anthony Bouyer, Orlando Garcia, and James Rutherford make up the biggest portions. However, like in the Northern District of California, they seemed to have ceased their activity in early 2021. Looking broadly, only Does, Anthony Bouyer, and Orlando Garcia seem to follow the monthly trend.
Of the firms representing 446 filers, firms representing plaintiffs have been more active than those representing defendants, with the most active being the SO Cal Equal Access Group, the Center for Disability Access, Manning Law, and the Law Office of Hakimi & Shahriari. Of these, the latter three seem to follow monthly trends while the SO Cal Equal Access Group seems independent. The monthly cases filed by the SO Cal Equal Access Group and the Center for Disability Access are negatively correlated, suggesting they might be in direct competition with each other. The case numbers of the Center for Disability Access are positively correlated with those of Manning Law, which could suggest that while they seem to be drawing from separate client pools, they follow the same underlying trends resulting in cases.
As to firms representing defendants, the two most active are The Karlin Law Firm and Seyfarth Shaw, whose case numbers positively correlate and do not predict district-wide case trends.
Governmental parties also make up a large portion of cases in the district, most prominently the United States itself. The plurality of these cases fall under 890 Other Statutory Actions. The next most sued governmental parties are the former and current acting commissioner of Social Security Andrew Saul and Kilolo Kijakazi, who deal with the various social security cases. They are followed by the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Of the various governmental parties, they are represented most often by the US Attorney’s Office, the Office of the General Counsel for Social Security Administration, the Office of Immigration Litigation, the Social Security Administration, and the California Department of Justice.
As in other districts, firms representing plaintiffs tend to be more active than firms representing defendants. They are also more specialized. Of these, The SO Cal Equal Access Group, the Center for Disability Access, Manning Law, and the Law Offices of Lawrence D. Rohlfing are the most active. Of these, only the Center for Disability Access and the Law Offices of Lawrence D. Rohlfing seem to follow monthly case-number trends. And of these most active firms representing plaintiffs, only the Law Offices of Lawrence D. Rohlfing does not specialize in 446 Americans with Disabilities Act – Other cases; they primarily handle 864 Social Security – SSID Tit. XVI. cases.
Of the private law firms representing defendants, Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith; Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani; Littler Mendelson; and Seyfarth Shaw are the most active. They are independent of each other, and only Littler Mendelson seems to follow total case number trends across the district. Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith and Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani handle a bit of everything; Littler Mendelson also handles a mélange of cases with a plurality being 442 Civil Rights – Jobs; and Seyfarth Shaw also handles a mix of cases, but they primarily handle 442 Civil Rights – Jobs and 446 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) – Other.
