The numbers behind the UK’s growing fraud litigation market

Fraud litigation constitutes a growing share of English court activity. Stewarts’ latest report in partnership with Solomonic explores the volumes, key sectors and court trends across England & Wales.

Fraud remains a significant and persistent driver of commercial litigation, accounting for 15% of new claims (from available claim forms) in 2025, up from 14% in 2024 and 11% in 2023, underscoring civil litigation as a significant avenue for remedy.

This increase is particularly notable given that the absolute number of new fraud cases has remained relatively low, at 143 in 2025. The data suggests that while fewer new claims may be issued, fraud disputes are making up a larger proportion of the litigation landscape. A similar pattern is reflected in judgments, where fraud cases continue to represent a substantial share: 130 judgments in 2025, accounting for 11.3% of all judgments.

Data snapshot from Stewarts Trends in Fraud Litigation report

England and Wales continues to serve as a global hub for complex, high-value and often cross-border fraud disputes. Despite Brexit and general economic uncertainty, the jurisdiction’s reputation as a leading forum for resolving such claims remains firmly intact.

In terms of forum, the General King’s Bench Division remains the most commonly used court for fraud claims. However, there has been a notable rise in activity within the Circuit Commercial Court. Meanwhile, the Commercial Court and Business List together continue to account for a significant share of cases, at 42%.

Sector trends show that banking and finance disputes continue to dominate fraud litigation, comprising 33% of claims in 2025, albeit slightly down from the previous year. Other sectors with high levels of activity include technology, media and telecommunications (TMT), as well as real estate, reflecting the broad scope of fraud-related disputes across the economy.

Stewarts Partner Mo Bhaskaran and Senior Associate Charlie Mercer examine the recent trends and analyse the data on the volume and key features of fraud claims:

“It is no secret that fraud is on the up in the UK. The Office for National Statistics’ latest crime statistics (running to the year ending September 2025) record an estimated 4.2 million fraud incidents, with a 19% increase in bank and credit account fraud, the most prevalent category.

But how does this play out in commercial litigation? Solomonic’s data shows that there has been a significant increase in fraud disputes since 2014, from circa 6% of all judgments in 2014 to almost 12% in 2025, and that these have remained above 10% since 2020. 

There are a number of potential reasons for this. There could be causation rather than correlation in the higher levels of fraud generally, in particularly banking-related fraud. However, our suspicion is that much of that activity is unlikely to make it to the civil courts, given that the claim values are likely to be relatively low, the difficulties in pursuing anonymous perpetrators of, for example, authorised push payment (APP) fraud, and the other sources of reimbursement available for these types of issues, particularly under the Payment Systems Regulator’s reimbursement scheme.

Our view is that the increase is more likely driven by a more sophisticated and informed litigation market. For example, it is now commonplace to expand fraud-related claims beyond the perpetrators to target intermediaries and professional services advisors. This has been enabled by the refinement of causes of action such as Quincecare, which focuses on the duties of financial institutions when processing payments. Finally, the development of the funding market over the last 20 years has driven fraud litigation, including enabling such claims to be pursued where the victims do not have the wherewithal themselves (often as a result of the fraud they are litigating).”

The data reinforces London’s continued position as a global centre for major international disputes, particularly in complex and high-value fraud litigation. 

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