Lawsuits cases are civil disputes that are settled in a court of law. They can be either on the state or federal level. There are over 15,000 lawsuits filed every year just on the state level according to Citizens for a Sound Economy. Lawsuits, or cases are filed for a number of reasons such as landlord/tenant disputes, personal injury, breech of contract, and so forth. Most civil lawsuits are based on torts which means that no law was broken but that someone acted negligently in a way that caused damage. he original purpose of tort law was to compensate victims for their losses. It was also meant as a way to prevent future negligence by punishing those who were found negligent to the point of causing harm or damage. The courts have become so backlogged by the number of cases that many states now require some type of mediation if an agreement cannot be reached out of court. If mediation is unsuccessful, the matter still goes before a judge. It is still unclear how beneficial the mediation offer is and how many cases are actually settled out of court. The number of lawsuits continues to grow every year.