Medical device and pharmaceutical liability lawsuit filings in federal courts, while still the leading category of products liability complaints, have declined slightly in recent years while vehicle and aircraft cases are on the rise, according to a new report released Monday.

In 2016, there were 29,149 medical device and pharmaceutical liability cases filed in federal courts, including multidistrict litigation, which makes up the overwhelming majority of products liability cases filed in federal courts.

That's a 45 percent drop from 2013, when new cases spiked to 53,066 from 29,198 the previous year, according to a report on trends in products liability litigation by Lex Machina, a legal analytics firm.

In the same timeframe, new filings for vehicle liability cases grew from 423 cases to 1,896 in 2016. Aircraft liability case filings ratcheted up from 49 cases to 94.

Dennis Raglin of San Francisco-based Rimon PC, who represents defendants in products liability cases, said the recent decline in medical product and pharmaceutical cases could be due to the fact that case filings of that type tend to come in “waves.”

He said that a recent spike in lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies over their supposed role in the spread of the opioid epidemic, such as the roughly 400 lawsuits filed in federal court in Ohio against drug manufacturers and distributors, may drive the numbers back up.

“It could break new ground on what happens in product liability because it's the first case that really tests the waters,” Raglin said of the Ohio opioid litigation.

The report did not include cases that dealt solely with claims of false advertising, negligent operation or installation or negligence against medical staff and health care providers.

According to the report, when excluding MDL cases, the powerhouses of all products liability litigation filings from 2009 to 2017 are the U.S. district courts in the Central District of California, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the District of New Jersey, which collectively accounted for 15 percent of all non-MDL products liability cases filed.

As for medical product and pharmaceutical cases, also excluding MDL cases, the top three courts were California's Central District, the District of New Jersey and the Eastern District of Louisiana; the three courts accounted for 22 percent of new filings of cases of that type.

With regard to how the federal district courts resolve the cases, the vast majority of medical device and pharmaceutical products liability cases are settled or resolved procedurally, the report states.

But when those issues are resolved on the merits of the case, the defense bar wins 90 percent of the time, according to the report.

The top firms representing plaintiffs in medical device and pharmaceutical cases that were terminated in 2016 or 2017—which tend to be small, products liability boutiques—are the St. Louis-based Carey Danis & Lowe; the California-based Knox Ricksen; Schuckit & Associates, which is based in Indiana; Lopez McHugh, based in New Jersey; and Holland & Hart of Colorado.

On the defense side, the top products liability firms tend to be larger and more nationally based. They were Shook, Hardy & Bacon; Reed Smith; Greenberg Traurig; Ice Miller; and Faegre Baker Daniels.

Of all product types, asbestos case filings saw the most significant decline. There were 35,124 asbestos cases filed in federal courts in 2011, which fell to 564 in 2012 and steadily declined to 139 cases in 2016.

The decline in asbestos case filings mirrors the trend in state courts across the country.