Litigation attrition is a legal strategy whereby large corporations and/or high net worth individuals inundate a competitor that is less capitalized with legal filings until they go out of business. The goal of litigation attrition is to wear your opponent out financially by having them run out of money trying to match your legal spend, thus they can no longer afford counsel to defend them on the merits of the case.
Historically there are a number of large corporations whom have utilized litigation attrition as a strategy when competition – typically smaller businesses – become a potential threat to their market dominance. Instead of competing fairly with the market newcomer, these corporations file lawsuit after lawsuit to bankrupt their smaller competitor with massive legal fees.
Litigation attrition favors massive corporations with legions of inhouse lawyers on their payroll and unlimited budgets. Smaller businesses lack the same level of resources as their larger competitors, and will likely fold under the crippling cost of battling long-term litigation.
