Through these last six months, we've sat back and watched as major American companies, icons and brand-names like Washington Mutual, General Motors and Lehman Brothers, entered a downward spiral and filed bankruptcy.

This is not the last of this trend. According to the American Bankruptcy Institute, U.S. corporate bankruptcies surged 54 percent in 2008, and many more are on the way.

When a company files for bankruptcy– or even contemplates it–the directors and officers of the troubled firm will almost certainly face lawsuits from disgruntled investors, shareholders and regulatory bodies seeking some sort of redress.

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