The Business of Suing
Plaintiffs’ hidden investors drive up crane owners’ litigation costs
By Kevin Cunningham
As the follow-up to“ Crane Insurance Market Conditions”( Contractors Hot Line, October 3, 2025), this article further discloses litigation factors that are hurting today’ s crane insurance buyers.
One of those factors is firms that make a business of secretly funding accident litigation.
Another is a dramatic increase in plaintiff-lawyer advertising that raises clients’ hopes of absurdly huge monetary settlements.
Both of those factors are making crane insurance more expensive, and in some cases unaffordable, for crane owners.
National research from the American Tort Reform Association( ATRA) shows
Editor’ s Note: This is the second of three articles by insurance industry expert Kevin Cunningham that address the malady of rapidly rising insurance costs in the crane and heavy-haul industries. The first article appeared in the October 3, 2025 edition of Contractors Hot Line; look for the third article in a later issue in November.
that 2024 saw plaintiff legal service providers spend more money on television, radio and outdoor advertising than ever before. Here are three telling statistics.
• The number of TV ads has increased by more than 44 % since 2017
• Radio ads surged to over 6.8
12 October 31, 2025 www. contractorshotline. com