California Companies See Fewer Suits Ahead

This could be a slow year for corporate litigation in California, according to corporate counsel responding to Fulbright & Jaworski's latest "Litigation Trends Survey." Compared to the national average, far more Californians surveyed expect a decline in the number of legal disputes at their company in 2010. Accordingly, budgets for class action litigation, along with intellectual property and patent cases, are the ones most likely to decrease, the survey found. However, increased spending is expected in some areas of litigation, including bankruptcy/reorganization, regulatory/investigations, and contracts. Furthermore, California companies were more likely to be the target of a recent suit than to have brought one.

The survey, conducted annually, includes data collected from 408 lawyers from May through July 2009.

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