Litigation Trends That We Are Likely To See In 2021

2020 has been a historical year when a lot of things happened. 2021 is not much different in unfolding major events as a follow-up or completely new and unpredictable. With such changing and evolving world conditions, every industry in the globe has undergone some sort of modification. In some cases, this has proven to be good and some have had terrific consequences. 

Similarly, the litigation sector has seen and witnessed major statistical changes and evolutions. With the world being shut down, cases alleging some or the other personal or organizational body has witnessed a major change. In this article, we discuss how litigation trends are likely to unfold the present world scenario in 2021.

How will the changing trend affect the world?

Litigation cases have surely increased with the introduction of the historical year 2020, but there are major aspects of the various types of litigations that have shaped the judicial outcomes in the year and are likely to shape the future. It is wise to note that the judiciary or the law system is made for the people and driven by them. Thus, any change in the system is a repercussion of the changing human behavior.

The major changes witnessed by courts and lawyers are with respect to alternative dispute resolution. People involved in a case have chosen the methods of mediation and arbitration more than an actual trial. This has led to time-saving operations of the judges and attorneys. Due to social distancing norms, the court has saved much time and expense by holding online trials through a webcam.

This change is set to evolve the world in a much more humane and compassionate way as the parties in a case are choosing to mediate. But on the contrary, this system will also lead to growing litigations because of the prior knowledge of potential arbitration and mediation. Thus, everything that is happening will have some sort of consequence waiting.

Trends in the litigation sector

Growth of Commercial Litigation Cases

Commercial litigation is the situation when a company or organization takes legal action upon a different company, organization, or personal body adhering to the events of disputes listed in the commercial litigation sectors. These disputes involve a breach of contract, shareholder disputes, class actions, partnership disputes, etc.

With several organizations shutting down in 2020 or becoming inactive with no revenue, the number of commercial litigation cases was relieved for the time being, but now, with the businesses running again with decent revenue generations, debtors have a wave of commercial litigation to be approached by. Thus, 2021 might witness an upsurge in commercial litigations. 

Growth in Employee litigation Cases

2020 was also the year when millions of people lost their jobs. This action was necessary in most cases, but it left a plethora of unemployed citizens. With the elimination of employees during the lockdown, the cases for employee litigations have increased and are set to increase more. This is because the company bodies are tackling business with the help of as few employees as they can.

Elimination of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)

There will be an increase in various litigation cases leading to increased demand for lawyers. 2020 was an overwhelming year when people chose to let go of disputes and find peace. But, now all the growing peaks in the litigation graphs say that people are ready to enforce their trust in the law and wait for a fair trial. 

Thus, the methods of mediation and arbitration are about to decrease and the demand for lawyers will increase. This will also lead to expensive trials and attorney costs.