This research aims to assess the duration of tort claims in the courts of England and Wales, following its journey from the point of injury to the date of decision in the Supreme Court. A tort encompasses any wrongdoing in civil law that usually requires compensation for the damage that is caused. The primary objective of studying these claims is to fill the existent gap in academic literature on court timelines while determining the primary users of tort-related legal resources—the last piece of substantive research in the area is from 2006. 

This research involved analysing judgements of tort claims that progressed to the Supreme Court between 2016 and 2024, and extracting data related to the time periods and the nature of the claimants and defendants. At this stage, the data was irregular and relatively inaccessible, making the collection time-consuming and arduous.

Despite this roadblock, it was found  that the average duration of claims that progressed to the apex court is roughly 12 years, with 10.6% of that time being spent in the Supreme Court. A majority of the claimants were private individuals, and defendants were largely companies followed by public bodies. This may be an indication of the individual’s drive to remedy wrongdoings committed by larger bodies towards more vulnerable parties.

These results, apart from providing an estimate of the duration of tort claims and the nature of the parties involved, offer insight into the potential reasons for the scarcity of research in this area. The lack of accessibility to court data  may be indicative of a wider problem with access to information in the legal landscape of England and Wales. This research strives to be a preliminary step in addressing this issue, by proposing a more robust database to facilitate further research into the precise details of what causes delays in tort litigation and what factors play a role in the willingness of parties to raise claims in court.