Generally, any discussion of lifespan and timeframes for civil litigation in the United States requires emphasis of the idiom “patience is a virtue.” Plaintiffs should expect nearly any U.S. civil suit to last a minimum of a year from the date of the filing of the complaint. This time frame stems from the high volume of cases generally handled by our hard-working judiciary, and U.S. civil litigation system’s reliance on pre-trial discovery to uncover the facts of a case for purposes of guiding the matter to early resolution. Naturally, the more factually and legally complex the matter, the longer the case will take to progress through litigation.