The red tape, regulation and litigation bonanza for lawyers and accountants shows no sign of abating.

Last week PricewaterhouseCoopers revealed just how well it had been doing out of new regulation.

Its assurance business - audit and finance - across the UK was 18 per cent up last year generated in particular by advice on International Financial Reporting Standards and the Sarbanes-Oxley laws in the United States.

Equally the accountants and lawyers are making the most of our litigious society, albeit the downside is that they too are increasingly being sued.

Now a survey has found that almost half of UK companies expect to face more litigation during 2006 than they did over the last year.

Naturally it has been produced by people with a vested interest - international law firm and litigation heavyweight Fulbright & Jaworski.

Nevertheless, its conclusions seem in line with trends.

Its 2005 Litigation Trends Survey found that two-thirds of UK businesses had faced court actions in the last 12 months, and were particularly concerned about the increasing frequency of product liability cases. But there is one chink of light.

UK companies are still under less pressure than those based in the US, where three-quarters have faced at least one court action filed against them over the last year.

Some $8 million per year is incurred on litigation costs by the average large corporation in the States.

Big money. Lista Cannon, head of European disputes at Fulbright & Jaworski, said: " Although the UK system of requiring the losing litigant to pay the winner's costs can help prevent frivolous litigation out of fear of bearing the other side's legal bill, real concerns over spiralling fees still exist among UK businesses."

Companies with $1 billion or more in annual revenues face more than 20 times the number of court actions brought against the smallest companies and almost four times the number affecting medium-sized ones. Groups with $1 billion in gross revenues have on average more than 140 cases ongoing at any one time. Mind-boggling.

Small firms though remain vulnerable - least able to keep up with the mass of legislation and therefore most at risk.

The CBI was only recently bemoaning the cost of industrial tribunals, noting that many firms would simply settle, even if they felt they were in the right, just to minimise the potential costs.

IP and personal injury litigation took the most time to resolve. In the UK, personal injury claims take an average of 284 days compared to IP (151 days) and regulatory matters (124 days).

Manufacturing and insurance companies were more concerned about the rising trend in group and class actions.

The trend towards greater mediation in UK legal cases following the Woolf Reforms may explain the fact that UK companies (23 per cent of those surveyed) are much more likely than US companies (13 per cent) to settle matters before court proceedings begin.

Worrying nevertheless.