Interested in all aspects of the size of the commercial litigation
business. In particular: the number of cases of each major type and
especially the dollar volume of both settlements and judgments in the
United States each year. (Estimates of settlement values are very
important) Additional helpful information: breakdown of such cases
geographically within the United States, trends of all types, number
of attorneys practicing for plaintiffs, percentage of cases in which
public corporations are defendants, non US information of a similar
nature |
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
31 Oct 2004 06:28 PST
martingrove-ga,
I love this topic, even though I'm not 100% sure what sort of cases
you're interested in. It sounds to me like you're basically asking
about companies suing companies. Is that correct?
At one point you mention "public corporations" -- does that mean
you're not interested in suits that private companies are party to?
I'm assuming that, e.g, smokers suing tobacco companies are NOT the
type of thing you're interested in, but perhaps I'm off base here.
Finally, it's a bit hard to tell if you're interested in information
on the lawsuits themselves (how many, average settlement, etc), or on
the overall BUSINESS of corporate litigation (how many lawyers
practice this, what are their fees, etc).
This is a tough topic to generate overview numbers for. It would help
enormously if you could provide some additional clarification as to
what type of litigation you're interested in -- what's in, and what's
out -- and on the specific types of information you hope to obtain.
Thanks.
pafalafa-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
martingrove-ga
on
31 Oct 2004 10:15 PST
Yes, companies suing companies - I am interested more specifically in
Contract, Fraud, Patent Infringement, Tortious Interference cases but
in general anything that is clearly commercial. Class Actions such as
you describe would be useful additional information.
It is primarily the lawsuits themselves in which I am interested, more
than the business of suing.
|
Clarification of Question by
martingrove-ga
on
31 Oct 2004 10:16 PST
Further - I am interested in all corporations but would appreciate a
breakout of the percentage in which public corporations are the
defendant
|
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
31 Oct 2004 14:10 PST
Hello martingrove-ga,
I have a particular interest in this question, as I've long suspected
that companies-suing-companies is a much larger piece of the
litigation pie than consumers-suing-companies, even though most of the
tory reform movement aims at the latter and ignores the former.
That said, however, there does not seem to be a heck of a lot of
review information with which to pull together the facts you asked
for. There are occasional reviews of major cases in a single area of
law -- patent infringement, for example -- and other reviews of a
particular court -- business torts in the 5th circuit, say.
But there isn't (as far as I can tell) any good overview of the scope
of commercial litigation in the US or elsewhere.
One option here would be to identify one or two major companies -- on
the scale of IBM or Coca-Cola -- and conduct a review of all the major
litigation affecting these companies. A review like this could
probably be broken out into major categories, and quantified (to some
degree) in terms of scope and $$$.
Beyond that, though, I don't see a manageable way to pull together the
big overview that you're looking for. It would make an awful good MBA
thesis one day, though.
Let me know what you think.
pafalafa-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
martingrove-ga
on
04 Nov 2004 10:59 PST
I take your suggestion but don't want to go that route yet - thanks for the thought
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