Analysis

"The No. 1 cause of nuclear verdicts is plaintiffs lawyers," said Robert Tyson, who has sought to rally the defense bar against rising verdicts and settlements.

Six states account for nearly 65% of the nuclear verdicts across the U.S.

Also on the rise: Triple extortion schemes in which cyber criminals exploit multiple ransoms from a single target.

The causes behind the social inflation theory are numerous, but one of them is that attorney advertising affects the public in unexpected ways, according to some defense lawyers.

Critics of the role of litigation funding say it causes trials and other proceedings to run longer, raising the costs of litigation.

The Supreme Court has entertained a wide variety of maritime cases with issues including a limitation of liability defense and cases involving the scope of marine terms.

The court will decide whether insurers should be allowed to forgo updating the statute of limitation for claims in their policies if that information is included in later endorsements.

Motor vehicle accidents account for nearly half of insured losses for midsize wholesalers and distributors.