The most common type of civil case filed in Washington County is the mortgage foreclosure.
Nearly half of all cases filed in Washington County in January 2020 were mortgage foreclosures.
Other civil cases often filed in Washington County are credit card collection, automobile negligence, and breach of contract suits.
You may be wondering: What are the most common types of civil law cases? What does a civil attorney do?
A civil case is any case, filed in court, that is not criminal. A case is criminal if it is brought in the name of the state, accuses someone of behavior that a statute defines as a crime, and seeks the death penalty, imprisonment, a fine, or removal or disqualification from office. For a more complete explanation as to the difference between a civil and a criminal case, click here.
How we did our research
In this post, the Persaud Law Office sought to find out what are the most common types of civil cases filed in Washington County, Oklahoma. We looked at court records of all cases filed in January 2020. We chose this date because the filing of lawsuits declined during the COVID-19 pandemic, and we chose to examine court records prior to this time.
We only chose civil cases where the amount in controversy was over $10,000. We examined only these cases because cases for less than $10,000 are often filed in small claims court, and are often resolved without lawyers. We also did not look at family or probate cases, as we have analyzed family and probate cases in prior posts (click here to see our data on divorce cases, and here to see our data on probate cases).
We only examined cases filed in state court; we did not look at cases filed in federal court. There are certain types of cases that may only be filed in federal court (for example, admiralty, antitrust, bankruptcy, copyright, and patent cases). While these cases are common, state courts do not have jurisdiction to hear them, and so these types of cases do not appear on our list.
In January, 2020, there were forty civil cases, with the amount in question over $10,000, filed in Washington County.
Of the forty civil cases filed in Washington County in January,
19 cases (47.5%) were mortgage foreclosures
5 cases (12.5%) were suits for unpaid credit card debt
4 cases (10%) were suits for collection of other types of debt
4 cases (10%) were automobile accident cases
3 cases (7.5%) were suits for unpaid fees for services
1 case (2.5%) was for the breach of a real estate lease agreement
1 case (2.5%) was for medical negligence
1 case (2.5%) was for nursing home negligence
1 case (2.5%) was for wrongful death, arising out of negligence with a firearm
1 case (2.5%) was a breach of contract suit filed by the owner of a business against the operator of the business
Below, see a list of all civil cases for over $10,000, filed in Washington County, in January 2020, with the case number and the type of case:
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