If you’ve found yourself filing more discovery motions than usual these days, you’re not alone. Personal injury lawyers practicing across Pennsylvania say they’re seeing a marked uptick in motions to compel needing to be filed.

Lawyers have several different potential answers for why that might be. Some note that lawyers and witnesses are increasingly busy as litigation and trial work gets back under way. Others say it could be a litigation tactic aimed at taking advantage of the unique conditions at the courthouses. But one things seems to be certain, at its core the emerging trend is connected to the COVID-19 pandemic and the aggressive efforts by courts to clear case backlogs that have been building over the past two years.