Employers face influx of lawsuits over disability accommodations, new report shows
In 2025, plaintiffs filed a record number of lawsuits alleging that their employers failed to provide reasonable disability accommodations, according to Lex Machina’s 2026 “Employment Litigation Report.” (Image from Shutterstock)
In 2025, plaintiffs filed a record number of lawsuits alleging that their employers failed to provide reasonable disability accommodations, according to Lex Machina's 2026 Employment Litigation Report.
The report, which was released Tuesday, shows that plaintiffs filed 6,796 disability accommodation cases in 2025, which also marks a year-to-year increase of about 42%, according to the report from Lex Machina, the LexisNexis legal analytics platform. It attributes long-term health issues related to COVID-19 and several high-damage awards as contributing factors for the upward trend in cases.
Law.com has coverage of the report.
A record level of discrimination filings is also driving federal employment litigation trends, according to the report. Last year, for the first time since at least 2009, plaintiffs filed more than 20,000 federal discrimination suits. Recent developments in caselaw related to recovery for plaintiffs are a likely reason for this increase, the report said.
Among other findings, the report noted that more than 16% of employment suits were filed pro se in 2025. This shows a significant increase from 2021, when only 10% were filed by unrepresented litigants.
According to Law.com, the use of artificial intelligence by litigants is fueling some of this growth.
Write a letter to the editor, share a story tip or update, or report an error.
