New figures show that Ireland was second only to Britain in the number of litigants involved in cases before London’s Commercial Courts in the 12 months to March 2024.

An analysis of cases from the consultancy Portland showed that 139 litigants were from Ireland, with 391 from Britain. The US dropped from second to third place.

Portland said that the increase in Irish litigants was propelled by a surge in aircraft-insurance cases.

The figures showed that the courts handed down 262 judgments during the 12-month period – up 2% compared with the previous year.

Russian figure dips

There were 1,220 litigants recorded across all judgments this past year – a 9% increase.

International litigants from 84 countries made up 64% of the total – the largest proportion since Portland began collecting the data.

The report shows that the number of Russian litigants more than halved during the period to only 27.

This means Russia has dropped outside the top three countries for the first time since 2017-2018.

Sanctions

Portland said that, although Britain’s sanctions regime did not preclude designated entities from using the English courts, many international law firms had stopped operating in Russia or representing Russian clients.

Its figures show that 30% of Russian litigants had legal representation in the Commercial Courts in the past year.

“This is in stark contrast to the previous year, when just over 70% were represented by a law firm,” it points out.

A record 31 states appeared in judgments in the past year, with most of these linked to arbitration, reflecting the court’s role as the main supervisory court for London-based international arbitrations.