This year will bring an onslaught of eviction lawsuits. Given the hardships many businesses have suffered because of the pandemic, courts may be sympathetic to the plight of the tenants.

While residential cases will grab the headlines, commercial property owners, managers and their attorneys should know that financially troubled tenants will be making news of their own. Armed with the hope of keeping their business afloat, they will unveil, or expand on, defenses to mitigate the pandemic’s financial impact and to save their leases.