A new report by the California Lawyers Association shows that the state has become the leading state in terms of attorneys’ fees paid to firms representing California residents.
The study, released Friday, found that in 2016, California’s lawyers spent $2.1 billion in California resident fees, an increase of more than 15 percent over the previous year.
California accounted for almost three-quarters of the increases in attorney fees paid in California over the last two years.
California also had the highest average annual salaries paid to California residents at $1,300,000.
California also had a higher average annual salary paid to lawyers in the San Francisco Bay Area ($1,000,000), Los Angeles ($850,000) and Los Angeles County ($650,000).
In California, nearly two-thirds of all lawyers’ salaries came from California, according to the report.
About a third of the attorneys’ salaries in California went to lawyers representing other California residents, who were more likely to represent California residents than California residents to the extent that they represented residents in other states.
The report also found that California has had the nation’s highest percentage of attorneys filing lawsuits.
About 10.2 percent of attorneys in the state filed at least one class action lawsuit in 2016.
California has the nation, according the report, with the highest percentage.
The state is also the leading jurisdiction in terms for lawyers filing lawsuits against corporations.
Of the nearly 1,400 class actions filed against corporations in California in 2016 alone, California had nearly 7,300 attorneys who filed at the state level, according a report by Kroll Associates.
California’s attorneys filed more than 1.3 million class actions in 2016 and a record amount of money was spent on class actions, the report said.