In a slumping economy the one thing that is on the rise seems to be buisness related lawsuits

I found this article to be interesting.

Businesses are facing — and filing — more lawsuits these days, a situation that may intensify over the next year.

“People fight harder for their position when the economy’s down,” said Bob Miller, a partner at Perkins Coie LLP in Denver who specializes in complex commercial litigation.

Nationwide, 42 percent of corporate counsel say they expect their companies to face increased litigation over the next 12 months, compared with 34 percent who expressed that opinion in the previous year, according to a survey released this month by Houston-based law firm Fulbright & Jaworski.

Eighty-three percent of the lawyers surveyed said new litigation had been filed against their companies in the past year, up from 79 percent the previous year. Most of the increase is coming in bankruptcy, contracts and labor/employment areas, according to the survey; more modest increases were cited in intellectual property, insurance and regulatory actions.

“In the old days, if you had a problem on a job, and depending on how much money was at issue, you might very well say, ‘I’m not going to spend the money going after this; I’ll just make it up on the next job,’” said Carrie Rodgers, an attorney at Moye White LLP in Denver. “Now everybody’s using up what’s in their pipeline, and the next job may or may not be there.

“Consequently, people are much more focused on not letting any receivables go. That’s why we’re seeing a huge surge in mechanics’ lien, bond claims, verified claims on state projects — everyone is wanting to get paid now for their current projects. It’s a completely different environment than it was a year, year and a half ago.”

The Colorado State Judicial Branch doesn’t break out which cases filed in the state’s various district courts involve businesses suing other businesses. But looking at the types of litigation being filed offers an idea. For instance, breach-of-contract filings in Denver District Court rose 4.6 percent in fiscal year 2008 compared with 2007, to a total of 989. That’s a nearly 30 percent jump from 2006. Data wasn’t yet available for fiscal year 2009, which ended June 30.

Sixty-four mechanics’ liens were filed in Denver in 2008, up 14 percent from 56 in 2007. Mechanics’ liens typically are filed by subcontractors or suppliers on a construction project who weren’t paid.

Meanwhile, Colorado business bankruptcies soared 55 percent in the first nine months of 2009, according to data from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Colorado. A total of 1,023 companies had filed for bankruptcy protection in the Denver court from January through September, compared with 660 for the same period in 2008.

The bankruptcy court categorizes a filing as business-related if a business name is used in the filing, if the debtor identifies it as a business case or if more than half the debt is business-related. Not all Colorado companies file for bankruptcy in Colorado; many opt to file in Delaware or other states.

Colorado’s business litigation is up more than it was during the state’s last significant economic downturn, in 2002 and 2003, Rodgers said.

“It’s definitely much more serious than that downturn,” Rodgers said. “I’d say this is more like the mid-’80s. I’ve actually liened the same projects in three decades. Construction comes and goes, and the economy comes and goes — but this time, because of the lending problem, we’re seeing a huge layer of litigation that is resulting from people not being able to convert from construction financing to permanent financing.”