The Most Sued Companies in America

By Elizabeth MacDonald
FOX Business
January 19, 2011

The Institutional Risk Analyst, a financial sector research firm run by veteran analyst Christopher Whalen, has taken a deep dive into the tort world and came up with a list of the most sued companies in America.

Banks with sizable mortgage exposure, such as Wells Fargo (WFC), Ally Financial/GMAC and Bank of America (BAC), are among the companies with the highest number of lawsuits. Citigroup (C), JPMorgan (JPM), Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) all have much lower lawsuit totals than Wells, BofA and Ally. US Bancorp (USB), has a large exposure to securitizations, but has "managed to keep its litigation profile the lowest of all large banks," says IRA.

Scary data point here for the banks: The IRA notes that mortgage lawsuits "are not asbestos cases..which typically get settled for less than $10,000 in pre-trial settlements," but can "rise to more than $1 million in settlement costs if they go to trial."

Also, IRA says: "Remember, that these banks are facing many more state court claims involving foreclosures and other matters that will not be removed to federal court."

IRA notes large numbers of asbestos cases are still driving the number of lawsuits against the industrial companies on the list. It notes Ford (F), Bridgestone, Goodyear Tire (GT), General Electric (GE) and General Motors (GM). Nearly 100% of the lawsuits Goodyear battled in 2009 and 2008 came from asbestos claims.

IRA says worth noting is that the totals for British Petroleum (BP) may look artificially low, given the cataclysmic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year. But it adds that "many of the claims against BP are being made in state courts along the Gulf."

The data, taken from Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER), is based on federal lawsuits that named the company as a defendant. IRA notes that there may be "some double counting for multiple parties," and also, the data do not include state lawsuits.

Total Federal Litigation

Company	2010	2009	2008	2007
General Electric	9,359	12,356	20,498	3,887
Goodyear	4,989	14,393	13,330	2,661
Bank of America	3,285	2,569	1,196	775
Wells Fargo	3,092	2,428	1,413	969
Toyota Motor	1,873	154	185	158
Wal-Mart	1,672	1,765	1,452	1,538
JPMorgan	1,150	1,149	471	275
General Motors	299	1,817	2,524	2,331
Morgan Stanley	261	405	273	236
Goldman Sachs	180	115	105	79
US Bancorp	59	74	19	25

Source: Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER)

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