The Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy last month released a study (and executive summary, both PDF) which "attempts to shed light on how small business fares under the constraint of litigation and calculates annual litigation costs." The researchers identified some thousands of small businesses that were parties in federal litigation between July 2002 and June 2003. They then employed small-group and telephone interviews to assess the nature of the costs (financial, managerial, and emotional) inflicted by the process. One lesson subjects said they had learned from their experience in court: "Be less trusting of employees, customers and other companies."