Report: Litigation wave to hit companies - South Florida Business Journal:
Corporate litigators may find themselves facing a dramatic upswing in business, according to a report from the law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski.
Eighty-three percent of U.S. and U.K. companies surveyed reported that new litigation has begun against their companies in the past year.
Of the companies that responded to the sixth-annual Litigation Trends Survey, 38 percent said the primary reason is the economic downturn.
Forty-two percent said they expect an increase in legal disputes in the next 12 months. The survey polled 408 company lawyers between May and July.
Respondents from large-cap companies were the most concerned about higher levels of litigation, with 52 percent saying they expect more legal disputes. In the public company segment, 47 percent of the respondents expected an upswing in litigation.
The areas likely to experience more litigation involve bankruptcy, contracts and labor-employment, the report concludeds.
Increases also have been noted in the areas of intellectual property, insurance and regulatory actions, although they are experiencing more modest increases, the report said.
The one industry that appears less impacted by the swell of litigation is health care.
Whistle-blower investigations also are about to make a comeback, the report concluded.
“Looking to 2010, 16 percent of all respondents say they expect the number of internal investigations involving their company to increase,” the report noted.
As part of the trend, more corporate in-house counsel are starting to see more active regulators and expect the number of investigations into corporate business to increase.