Every four years The American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Lawyers’ Professional Liability does a study to determine which areas of law caused the most claims in the United States. The ABA will be releasing a new study very soon, but for now let’s take a look at some of the trends from the last two studies that cover the periods from 2007 – 2011 and 2012 – 2015:
2011 Study Number of Claims By Area of Law:
- Real Estate – 20.33% of claims
- Personal Injury Plaintiff – 15.59% of claims
- Family Law – 12.14% of claims
- Estate, Trust, and Probate – 10.67% of claims
- Collections and Bankruptcy – 9.20% of claims
In the 2011 study, Real Estate took the number one spot for the first time ever. Since the beginning of these studies in 1985, Personal Injury-Plaintiff has held the #1 spot for the most claims by area of practice. Due to the change in the market though, Real Estate jumped past Personal-Injury-Plaintiff in the 2011 study to take the #1 spot.
Real Estate has been very interesting to watch, as it has been on a continuous down-slope for years. Starting at 23.36% in 2008, it has dropped nearly in half to 13.44% in 2014 (only slightly increasing to 14.33% in 2015).
2015 Study Number of Claims By Area of Law:
- Personal Injury Plaintiff – 18.24% of claims (increase of 2.65% since 2011 study)
- Real Estate – 14.89% of claims (decrease of 5.44% since 2011 study)
- Family Law – 13.51% of claims (increase of 1.37% since 2011 study)
- Estate, Trust, and Probate – 12.05% of claims (increase of 1.38% since 2011 study)
- Collections and Bankruptcy – 10.59% of claims (increase of 1.39% since 2011 study)
In contrast to Personal Injury-Plaintiff, Estate, Trust, Probate has been climbing dramatically over the years, growing from 10.11% in 2008 to 12.73% in 2015. Included in this rise is Family Law and Collections and Bankruptcy. All very close in rank, each of the three catergories are at an all time high since the studies began. It will be very interesting to see what happens in the next study, as family law is very close to taking spot #2.
The next study “Profile of Legal Malpractice Claims” is due to come out in 2019, so check back in with us to see what’s changed in the marketing from the past few years.
