From PI to IP: Yet Another Unexpected Effect of Tort Reform
نویسندگان
چکیده
Is there a connection between state-law tort reform and the explosive growth of U.S. intellectual property (IP) litigation? The literature has established that the number of tort claims in states with tort reform has gone down. How do personal injury (PI) plaintiff lawyers deal with the decrease in the demand for their services? Could a significant number of them end up shifting their practice toward IP law? Although David Schwartz’s interviews with contingent-fee litigators have led him to suggest that “[m]ost lawyers whose practice consists of substantially all patent contingent litigation are primarily and historically patent litigators,” there is pre-existing anecdotal evidence that some proportion of PI lawyers have switched substantially to IP.
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