Digital Transformation » Technology » Surge in litigation puts UK companies on defensive

Surge in litigation puts UK companies on defensive

An increase in litigation causes concern among UK corporates

More than three-quarters of UK businesses claim to have faced court action
over the past 12 months, with 84% saying they expect the number of legal
disputes to either stay the same or increase over the next year.

The 2006 Litigation Trends Survey published by law firm
Fulbright
& Jaworski
found that an emerging trend is that companies are spending
substantially more on dealing with regulatory enforcement issues – 58% of UK
respondents to the survey said that they have received a regulatory proceeding
in the past 12 months.

The research reveals a worrying increase in the amount of litigation faced by
UK companies: last year, just 66% of respondents said they faced a court action
compared with 78% this year. Perhaps even more worrying was the revelation that
the percentage of those respondents who faced more than 50 court actions tripled
from 5% to 15%.

According to Fulbright & Jaworski, the average large corporate incurred
litigation fees of $10.8m (£5.8m), an increase of more than 30% on last year’s
figure of $8m. “All companies have to face up to the challenge of working in a
complex regulatory environment and must ensure they are prepared to address
current regulatory issues and anticipate future regulatory changes,” says Lista
Cannon, head of European disputes at the firm.

Share
Was this article helpful?

Leave a Reply

Subscribe to get your daily business insights