In-house counsel note class action trends

Law and justice concept, gavelCarlton Fields recently published a survey of 368 general counsel and other in-house counsel at major companies across more than 25 industries regarding the class actions they faced in 2012 and their expectations for 2013. 

A number of the findings were quite interesting: 

 

  • In-house counsel reported that their companies spent $2.1 billion on class actions in 2012, a slight decline from 2011. Per company spending, however, varied widely, with some companies spending $100 million a year and some as little as $180,000. The per company average was $3.19 million.
  • In 2012, the typical class action cost $671,100 annually, a 14% drop from the $776,500 spent per case annually in 2011.
  • Half of major companies currently face one or more class actions. On average, companies were targeted by 5.1 class actions in 2012, a 16% increase from the 4.4 class actions per company in 2011. But survey respondents expect to face an average of only 4.6 class actions in 2013.
  • Consumer fraud and labor-and-employment class actions account for more than half of all class actions. Other types of class actions included securities (10%), product liability (9%), antitrust (7%), and intellectual property (1%).
  • In 2013, in-house counsel expect to face many new consumer fraud class actions, with allegations involving data security, food safety and labeling, and wireless and other technologies.
  • In addition, 9% of companies are expecting healthcare class actions, and 6% expect environmental class actions.
Steve Larson

An experienced trial lawyer who handles both hourly and contingent fee cases, Steve has expertise in class actions, environmental clean-up litigation, antitrust litigation, securities litigation, corporate disputes, intellectual property disputes, unfair competition claims, and disputes involving family wealth. Steve regularly represents individuals and businesses in federal and state court and has obtained class-wide recovery in multiple class actions. A veteran practitioner, Steve’s clients value his creative approach to resolving complex litigation matters.

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