On July 29, 2008, Cornerstone Research and the Stanford Law School Securities Class Action Clearinghouse released their mid-year 2008 report on securities litigation, entitled “Securities Class Action Filings: 2008 Mid-Year Assessment” (here). A July 29, 2008 press release describing the Report can be found here.

 

Although the Cornerstone Report differs in some details, it is otherwise entirely consistent with my own mid-year 2008 securities lawsuit filing report (which can be found here). Consistent with the observatoins in my prior report, the Cornerstone Report observes that securities filings in the first half of 2008 “continued the rebound that started in the second half of 2007.”

 

The Cornerstone Report states that there were 110 securities class action filings in the first half of 2008, which projects to an annualized total of 220. A year end total of 220 lawsuits would represent a 27.2 percent increase over 2007 and a 14.6 percent increase over the annual average for the 11 years ending in 2007.

 

The Report also notes that over half of the 2008 first-half filings (58) were driven by subprime and credit crisis-related allegations. Of these, 17 were related to auction rate securities.

 

The Report also notes that “market capitalization losses for defendant firms associated with filings in the first half of 2008 were higher than the average semiannual loss in the eleven preceding years,” and rival “the historical highs seen in 2000-02.” These market capitalization losses may well drive the value of future settlements in these recently filed securities lawsuits.

 

The Report also contains analysis suggesting that the so-called filing lull that prevailed from mid-2005 to mid-2007 “was partly due to a strong stock market with low volatility,” and that the more recently increased filing level was associated with increased volatility.

 

While the Cornerstone Report reflects analysis regarding the apparent connection between stock market volatility and securities lawsuit filings, the most recent Report omits analysis that appeared in Cornerstone’s mid-year 2007 report suggesting that the reduced filings during the period mid-2005 to mid-2007 was due to a “permanent shift” to a lower securities class action lawsuit filing level. As I noted at the time (refer here), I regarded the low stock market volatility as a much likelier explanation than any permanent behavioral shift as an explanation for the reduced filing levels.  

 

The Ultimate Solution to Stock Trader Misconduct: According to a July 27, 2008 Reuters report (here) , “A Chinese court upheld the death sentence of a former securities trader charged with embezzling 97.56 million yuan ($14.31 million).”

 

Hat tip to Kelly Rehyer for the link to the Reuters report.