In the second annual installment of Seyfarth Shaw's Commercial Litigation Outlook, our nationally-recognized team provides keen insights about what to expect in 2022. It will be a busy year that will call upon clients and their counsel to be flexible, creative, and proactive on many fronts.
As the pandemic morphs into an endemic, we are seeing overall litigation activity increase as court backlogs have cleared and trials have resumed. The drivers of increased litigation are many, and include vaccine availability, a more robust federal enforcement scheme, and impending court deadlines in cases that were either filed during the early stages of the pandemic or which had previously stalled due to restricted travel, inactivity, or court closures.
At the same time, we are living through a significant shift in how legal services are performed and delivered. Advances in technology and the pandemic's forced remote practice have accelerated innovation in practice tools, technological acumen, and flexible approaches. Flying lawyers all over the country to sit in conference rooms has been replaced, where strategically appropriate, by Zoom depositions and mediations.
As you can read in the full Outlook linked below, reliance on all things online, and remote workforces, has amplified the risks around cyberattacks and privacy and insurance premiums are increasing across the board for all lines of insurance, particularly as insurers adjust their risk to the increase in expensive ransomware attacks. Other key trends in the commercial litigation space addressed in this issue are:
- Antitrust
- Bankruptcy
- Consumer Class Action Defense
- Consumer Financial Services Litigation
- eDiscovery Litigation
- Fair Credit Reporting Act
- Franchise and Distribution
- Health Care Litigation
- International Dispute Resolution
- Real Estate Litigation
- Securities
- Trial Outlook
Staying ahead of the curve in meeting these challenges remains
our driving goal, as we work together to develop solutions and
embrace new ways to navigate this rapidly changing landscape. We
hope you will find this year's Commercial Litigation Outlook a
useful resource, as well as an invitation for further discussion
and collaboration. We encourage you to contact any of the authors
for assistance in connection with any of the areas of law or issues
outlined in this publication.
Download the 2022 Commercial Litigation Outlook Now
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
