There has been a marked increase in spending on class actions after four consecutive years of declines. A new study says it is an important turning point as legal departments now project further spending increases in 2016 even as they pursue different ways to manage class actions.
Carlton Fields, a national law firm with a Hartford office, said in its fifth annual Carlton Fields Class Action Survey that companies across multiple industries spent $2.1 billion defending class-action lawsuits in 2015. Total spending is up from $2.03 billion in 2014, and is expected to rise to $2.14 billion this year.
The Carlton Fields data also showed a significant rise in the number of companies facing class actions. From 2014 to 2015, the number of companies facing at least one major class action suit increased by nearly 7 percentage points to more than 60 percent.
The survey also reflects that organizations increasingly hold a single in-house attorney accountable for the outcomes of their class-action lawsuits. Since 2014, there has been a 10 percent increase in companies employing this sole-accountability method.
