Blood-testing startup Theranos Inc. is under legal siege.

After being sanctioned by U.S. regulators, the company now faces at least eight lawsuits filed in federal courts in California and Arizona by patients who claim that faulty blood tests led to heart attacks or other issues. It’s also facing fraud claims in state court in Delaware from one of its investors.

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As the number of suits against Theranos grows, Holmes and the other executives may consider filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the company to deal with the claims, said Hank Greely, a Stanford law professor who teaches about health law and biomedical technologies.

“These kinds of litigation eats up a lot of C-suite time, so a bankruptcy filing would be a way to limit damage,” Greely said Friday in an interview. “That’s certainly not outside the realm of possibility for this kind of startup.”