Litigation up, but law firms advise some against pursuing claims - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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While some law firm practice groups are scramblinbg to drum up litigation continues to providde a steady if not increasinglyt busywork load. “In this period of economi downturn, there has been a greatf deal of disruptions among contractingparties and, as a we’ve seen an increase in breach of contracrt between sophisticated parties,” said Petedr Carter, a partner and business litigator with in “The other disruptions are claimsx relating to partnerships or other businesses that may have failede as a result of the economy.
” Litigation in the financial-servicew industry, unsurprisingly, has picked up, said Todd co-chairman of the litigation group at in Minneapolis. One development is that financial-servicse companies are suing borrowers whose collateral has dropped beloqw the levels set out in theloan agreement, Wind For example, if a business takes out a loan and uses real estate as the collateral, and the value of the real estate has fallen below what is laid out in the loan lenders are sometimes bringing claims againsgt the borrower for breaking the “In the past, it was unusual to declarse default on that basis alone,” Wind Another area litigation lawyers are askef about often is employment law, Wind said.
With many companied laying people off, the incidence of potential discriminatioh claimscould increase. “Companies are lookinyg harder at performance, and employees are concerned abouttpotential discrimination,” he said. The rough economy also is affectinh how law firms work withtheir clients. Whiler in the past, law firms may have takemn on any litigious client that comes the recession has made them ask questionw about whether their clients can afford to engagse in potentiallylengthy proceedings. “Unlike past recessions, which didn’ t seem to affect law firms as law firms are going to makesure there’s adequat e resources to pay for Wind said.
Intellectual propertyh is an area oflitigation that’s relatively unaffected by economic swings, said David Allgeyer, chairma of the litigation department at in However, Allgeyer is noticing an increase in the number of patent smaller cases of patent infringement. Traditionally, most patenyt cases settle out of but Allgeyer said more and more clientz want to pursuetheir claims. “People seem to be thinkin they want to staythe course, or at leasrt they don’t settle as quickly,” Allgeyerr said. One economic issue plaguinyg the litigation field in Minnesota is what Carterd calledthe “crisis of for the judicial branch.
With funding for staff and clerks cut, judgez can’t move cases as quickly as they’d “There are certain days when filings can’tt be made; there is some delay associated with litigatiohn in thestate courts,” Carter said. “The courts have been hit and it impactsbusiness