Insights into shifting commercial fraud trends

• New data shows that civil fraud claims have increased since 2014.
• The general King’s Bench Division is now the most popular court, indicating an increased proportion of lower-value claims.
• The English courts remain attractive to and respected by foreign users, but there are challenges.

In 2023, Stewarts and data analytics platform Solomonic produced a report looking at data relating to civil fraud claims in the English courts. It was the first of its kind. For the first time, it provided hard data to interrogate perceptions of fraud litigation in England and Wales.

This summer, we have revisited and updated that data. This article discusses our findings and other important current developments for the future of fraud litigation in the UK.

Volume of claims

In 2023, the key point we wanted to test was whether civil fraud litigation had increased in England and Wales. This was our sense, but only now did we have