Data snapshot: Head of the class

Defense spending against class action lawsuits has crippled companies' budgets, with a spike in high-risk cases, according to a new report from Carlton Fields.

The law firm, with 10 offices nationwide including five in Florida and one in Tampa, recently published the 2017 Carlton Fields Class Action Survey. One highlight: After steadily decreasing expenditures from 2010 to 2014, spending on defense for class action lawsuits rose in 2016 for the second consecutive year.

Companies across multiple industries spent $2.17 billion defending class action lawsuits in 2016, the report shows. That's up from $2.10 billion in 2015 and a decade-low $2.03 billion in 2014. It also accounted for 11.2% of all litigation spending in the United States. The spending uptick occurred even though the percentage of companies that reported facing class action lawsuits on an on-going basis has normalized, from a high of 60.6% in 2015 to 53.8% last year.