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Practice Tip: Reducing Product Liability Litigation Costs

By Ronald J. Levine and Jennifer Smith Finnegan
June 24, 2009

Although companies have long chalked up the costs of litigation as part of the “cost of doing business,” the current financial crises have placed added pressure on in-house counsel to reduce their budgets in all litigations, including product liability defense. In turn, in order to remain competitive, managers of defense law firms must find new ways to reduce client costs without sacrificing quality and profitability.

This article poses ten questions in-house corporate counsel should ask themselves when they are preparing to defend a case and are in the process of retaining outside counsel. Some of these questions have been built into “Outside Counsel Guidelines,” which a number of law departments have issued. The bottom line is: How do I maximize the bang for my litigation buck when I face a potentially costly product liability defense?

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