I didn’t intend to write a second post (here’s the first) on the ever rising tide of excessive fee litigation, but the LinkedIn algorithm, responding to my posting of my first blog post on this issue, hand delivered me another great graphic, this one by Sompo International, on the same topic. What I like about this one is that it quickly presents a longer term view of the historical growth in excessive fee litigation, showing the growth in filings since 2010 and illustrating that filings became elevated around six years ago and, despite some variation, have remained so. It also doesn’t underplay the amount paid out in damages over the years on these types of claims, documenting it as in excess of one billion dollars. This number is kind of the lede, which should never be buried in these types of presentations, and this graphic definitely doesn’t do that.

When you see these numbers, you further understand the point I made in my last post – that the amount of potential recovery for plaintiffs and their lawyers is driving much of this growth and the most realistic way to bring down the numbers of filings and reduce, long term, the exposure to plan sponsors and their insurers is to consistently take these cases to trial.