In the News draft

"Corporate legal departments scanning the horizon for the next threat from plaintiffs’ lawyers need look no further than television commercials.

Tracking television legal ads that solicit plaintiffs for mass torts can give general counsel in at-risk industries months of early warning of new trends and gauge the current appetite of the plaintiffs’ bar in ongoing product litigation categories."

"“These legal ads are like the canary in the coal mine,” [Rustin Silverstein, president and founder of X Ante] said. “You will see them before you’ll see the lawsuits being filed..."

When it comes to managing claim volumes, the ads can “also be a good proxy for what’s coming,” Silverstein said. ..."If the ads continue to stay on TV and stay out there, you can expect more lawsuits to follow.”"

"For large-scale litigation involving publicly traded companies, some investors are paying more attention to legal-ad spending as an early barometer of potential corporate risk, said Rustin Silverstein, president and founder of X Ante. “The constantly shifting array of targets on mass torts has become a good indicator for Wall Street,” Silverstein said. “They want to find out about the litigation risk earlier.”"

"Money fueling the mass tort litigation machine has exploded, particularly with the rise of litigation financing. X Ante, a firm tracking plaintiff-lawyer advertising, found annual spending on lawsuit TV ads more than tripled in the past decade."