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Employment Rulings in the D.C. Circuit

The D.C. Circuit covers the federal courts in the District of Columbia. The rulings below come from the circuit's court of appeals and the federal trial courts within it.

Of the 1,453 published rulings we track here (19732026), the breakdowns below show how they were decided. They describe published opinions only — not the odds of any particular situation.

How These Rulings Ended

Of the 1,453 published rulings we track in the D.C. Circuit.

Defendant Win
711 (49%)
Mixed Result
267 (18%)
Plaintiff Win
195 (13%)
Dismissed
147 (10%)
Remanded
128 (9%)
Settlement
5 (0%)

What Happens at Each Stage

A workplace lawsuit moves through stages, and a ruling can end it at any of them. Here is where the 1,447 rulings we could classify by stage were decided.

Appeal
848 (59%)

A higher court reviewing an earlier decision. Many published opinions come from this stage, after a lot has already happened in the case.

Summary judgment
196 (14%)

A ruling where the judge decides the case — or part of it — without a trial, because one side argues the key facts are not in dispute. For workers, getting past this step is often the biggest hurdle.

Of the 196 summary-judgment rulings here, 102 ended the case in the employer’s favor and 94 let the worker’s claims continue.

Motion to dismiss
357 (25%)

An early request — usually by the employer — to throw the case out before any evidence is gathered.

Trial verdict
5 (0%)

A judge or jury heard the evidence and reached a decision. Relatively few disputes get this far.

Settlement / consent decree
2 (0%)

The two sides resolved the dispute by agreement, sometimes with court approval. Most settlements are private and never show up in published opinions.

Default judgment
29 (2%)

A decision entered because one side did not respond to the case at all.

Other rulings
10 (1%)

Procedural decisions and orders that do not fit the main stages above.

States in This Circuit

Browse rulings from courts in each state the D.C. Circuit covers.

Browse Other Circuits

Explore employment rulings from the other federal circuits.

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These figures summarize publicly available published court opinions only. Published opinions over-represent summary-judgment rulings (decisions made without a trial) and appeals, because those are the stages where judges most often write formal opinions. Most workplace disputes settle privately and never appear here at all. A ruling’s outcome reflects many case-specific factors and is not a prediction for any other situation. Read more about how we source and classify rulings.

Data sourced from public federal court records via CourtListener.com. Case outcomes extracted using AI analysis. This information is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. The classification of outcomes and case stages is based on automated analysis and may not reflect the full scope of each case.