Anyone who hoped that commercial litigation might help law firms weather the recession was surely disappointed last year, according to National Law Journal affiliate VerdictSearch's report on the Top 100 Verdicts of 2009. Commercial verdicts, including breach-of-contract recoveries, fell from $1.4 billion in 2008 to $421 million last year. Fraud recoveries plummeted by nearly 70% to $561.3 million. Intellectual property litigation saw an increase — from $2.2 billion to $2.6 billion. But that picture was distorted by a single massive recovery: Centocor Ortho Biotech Inc.'s $1.67 billion verdict against Abbott Laboratories in the Eastern District of Texas. Absent that result, patent judgments would have declined significantly.
Font Size: 
TOP VERDICTS
Civil litigators getting used to life in the doldrums
The National Law Journal
March 15, 2010
This content is now available at LexisNexis®.
The ALM® and LexisNexis® Content Alliance
LexisNexis® is now the exclusive third party online distributor of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM’s legal news publications. LexisNexis® customers will be able to access and use ALM’s content by subscribing to the LexisNexis® services via lexis.com® and Nexis®. This includes content from The National Law Journal®, The American Lawyer®, Law Technology News®, The New York Law Journal® and Corporate Counsel®, as well as ALM’s other newspapers, directories, legal treatises, published and unpublished court opinions, and other sources of legal information.
ALM’s content plays a significant role in your work and research, and now through this alliance LexisNexis® will bring you access to an even more comprehensive collection of legal content.
If you are not currently a LexisNexis subscriber, contact 1-800-227-4908 to find out more or click here to have a customer representative contact you directly.
