A report of The Fraser Institute [info@fraserinstitute.ca], “The State of Canadian Judicial Statistics: Trends in Canadian Civil Justice,” summarizes findings from a 1995 survey of about 50 Canadian inside counsel. They assembled the costs of a representative case (pg. 20; all figures Canadian dollars) with the components averaging: $101,860 outside…
“The State of Canadian Judicial Statistics: Trends in Canadian Civil Justice,” a report by three authors at The Fraser Institute [info@fraserinstitute.ca] presents data on the average annual (inflation adjusted) growth of civil legal spending by business over the 20 year period. The annual increase was 0.9% (pg 3). Making up…
When the accountants for Adecco, a $20 billion temp agency, said they were not prepared to sign the company’s accounts for 2003 because there were material weaknesses, they triggered a $120 million accounting and legal review. [Economist, May 21, 2005 at pg. 72] At one point, “there were three sets…
Would litigation costs drop if clients had to pour their own time and effort down the litigation drain? Stated differently, if clients can lob a law suit over the fence into the legal patch, and never think of it again, the company loses a governor on the accelerator of litigation…
Many U.S. companies, having been granted an original U.S. patent, prosecute it in other countries. It would not be unusual to see fifteen to twenty foreign filings for every domestic patent, with many of those filings requiring translation. When patents have ten or more pages explaining such necessities as claims…
The ABA some years ago pegged a law firm attorney’s average turnover cost – the cost of replacement – at $100,000. That cost included, I suppose, executive search fees, time spent by partners interviewing, new-hire expenses, and ramp-up inefficiencies. Bear with me while I translate to law departments and make…
A press release by Celent [www.celent.com/PressReleases/20031229(2)/ClaimsLitigation.htm] noted “typical savings” from electronic invoice processing: “2-5% of total invoiced initially, 8-10% after tuning of rules.” For this posting, I have no view on those savings estimates, but I do wonder whether a law department can claim whatever savings are identified on out…
A long piece by Than N. Luu, entitled “Reducing the Costs of Civil Litigation,”” [http://w3.uchastings.edu/plri/fal95tex/cstslit.html] suggested a way litigants – which I read as opposing parties, not co-parties — could reduce their overall costs. They could “handle imaging and photocopying by copying their documents with the same company and [at]…
A recent blog by Walter Olson about lawsuit cash advances, and the NY Times article it cites, ought to give pause to in-house litigators. If “legal finance” companies thrive by offering injury claimants cold cash up front, companies will face more lawsuits. And, why stop with injury claimants when other…
The website for LegalMetrict (www.legalmetric.com/judgereport/calc.cgi) makes it appear easy for a law department litigator to calculate the present value of a lawsuit’s projected gain or loss. Online you can fill in the annual cost of money, the average cost of the lawsuit per month and its expected duration, as well…