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One of the more noteworthy developments in recent years has been the increasing frequency of collective investor actions outside the U.S. In certain instances, these cases have resulted in settlements that rival the largest U.S. securities class action lawsuit settlements in size. The largest of the settlements outside the U.S. are compiled in an October 31, 2022 report from ISS Securities Class Action Services entitled “The Top 25 Non-North American Settlements: Largest Securities-Related Settlements Outside of North America of All-Time.” The report, which updates ISS SCAS’s earlier research and was written by Jeff Lubitz, Managing Director, ISS Securities Class Action Services, and Jarett Sena, Director of Litigation Analysis, ISS Securities Class Action Services, can be found here.
Continue Reading The Top 25 Collective Investor Action Settlements Outside of North America

The SEC imposed fines on U.S. exchange-listed publicly traded companies at the highest levels in years during fiscal year 2022 (which ended September 30, 2022), according to an analysis published Saturday by the Wall Street Journal. As the Journal noted, the fines imposed during the fiscal year on firms accused of wrongdoing “underscore the Biden Administration’s tougher regulatory stance.” The October 29, 2022 Wall Street Journal article, entitled in the online edition “Under Biden Administration, Wall Street Watchdog’s Fines Surge,” can be found here.
Continue Reading Massive SEC Fines Surged During the Most Recent Fiscal Year

As I have previously noted, plaintiffs’ lawyers have over the last several months filed a plethora of securities class action lawsuit against companies that became publicly traded through a merger with a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC). Since these cases have only just been filed, few of the cases have yet reached the initial pleading hurdles. However, in a ruling last week, Central District of California Judge Christina A. Snyder denied in part the defendants’ motion to dismiss the securities suit pending against electric vehicle company Faraday Future Intelligent Electric, Inc., which became a public company through a June 2021 merger with a SPAC. As discussed below, the ruling may have significance for a number of the recently filed SPAC-related securities suits. A copy of Judge Snyder’s October 20, 2022 order can be found here.
Continue Reading Court Denies in Part Motion to Dismiss SPAC-Related Securities Suit Against EV Company       

In the latest lawsuit to emerge in the aftermath of the recent SPAC frenzy, a plaintiff shareholder has filed a securities class action suit against Opendoor Technologies, a residential real estate digital platform, which merged into a publicly traded SPAC in December 2020. The SPAC involved was one of the many financial vehicles launched by the so-called “King of SPACS,” Chamath Palihapitiya, while the SPAC craze was picking up steam. A copy of the October 7, 2022 complaint can be found here.
Continue Reading SPAC-Merged Real Estate Platform Hit with Securities Suit

Just as the COVID-19 virus continues to represent a threat to human populations, companies continue to explore possible alternatives for the treatment of the disease and its symptoms. As in any initiative built around developing and testing unproven products or processes, a number of these efforts to develop coronavirus treatments and therapies are unsuccessful. In some instances, litigation ensues after these unsuccessful efforts. A lawsuit filed last week against a biopharmaceutical company exemplifies the way this sequence of events can lead to litigation, in turn sustaining the ongoing phenomenon of coronavirus-related securities litigation filings that began at the time of the initial COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. in March 2020.
Continue Reading Biopharma Company Latest to Get Hit With COVID-19-Related Securities Suit

Although the filing of SPAC-related securities lawsuits has been one of the important securities litigation stories so far this year, the filing this past week of yet another SPAC-related securities suit did highlight the fact that it is the first SPAC-related securities suit to be filed since late May. As discussed further below, there may be some reasons for this apparent lull in SPAC-related securities suit filings over the last several months. However, the recently filed suit, as also discussed below, at the same time arguably underscores the fact that it is entirely possible that the apparently lull in filings between May and August was purely coincidental and that we are likely to see continued numbers of SPAC-related securities suit filings as the year progresses.
Continue Reading Online Lottery Company Hit with First SPAC-Related Securities Suit Filing Since May

One of the more distinctive litigation phenomena over the last several years has been the series of securities lawsuits filed against companies related to the opioid crisis. Plaintiffs’ attorneys have filed securities suits against opioid manufacturers, distributors, and even retailers. While a number of these lawsuits have resulted in settlements, several of them have also been dismissed. In the latest opioid-related securities suit to result in a dismissal, on August 17, 2022, the judge presiding over the opioid-related litigation pending against Endo International in the District of New Jersey granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss with prejudice. Although the dismissal is significant, there is more to be taken into account when assessing the opioid-related corporate and securities lawsuits.
Continue Reading Court Dismisses Opioid-Related Securities Suit

The COVID-19-related securities litigation wave has now been around long enough that companies that were sued early on in the pandemic are now being sued again based on more recent developments. Co-Diagnostics, a diagnostic testing company that was sued in the early months of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. in 2020, has now been sued again in a separate securities class action lawsuit based on the company’s disclosures surrounding its release of its second quarter 2022 financial results. A copy of the new complaint against Co-Diagnostics can be found here.
Continue Reading Diagnostic Testing Company Hit with COVID-19-Related Securities Suit

The number of securities class action lawsuit filings in the first half of 2022 was up slightly compared to the number of filings in the second half of 2021, according to a new report from Cornerstone Research. The report, which is entitled “Securities Class Action Filings: 2022 Midyear Assessment,” contains extensive analysis of the first half 2022 filings, including in particular some interesting discussion about SPAC-related securities litigation. The report itself can be found here. Cornerstone Research’s July 27, 2022 press release about the report can be found here.
Continue Reading Cornerstone Research: First Half Securities Suit Filings Up Slightly Compared to Second Half 2021

In the following guest post, the authors revisit the question of whether or not securities class action lawsuits against development-stage biotech companies are likelier to survive a motion to dismiss compared to securities suits against other kinds of companies. As the authors report below, they conclude from their research that the suits against biotech companies are not likelier to survive dismissal motions. The authors of this guest post are: Doug Greene, BakerHostetler, Leader, Securities and Governance Litigation Team; Genevieve York-Erwin, BakerHostetler, Partner; Mike Tomasulo, Baldwin Risk Partners, Managing Partner, Management Liability National Practice Leader: Emily Baxter,  BakerHostetler, Associate; and Alex Karambelas, BakerHostetler, Associate. A version of this article previously was published on the PLUS Blog. I would like to thank the authors for allowing me to publish their article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this site’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is the authors’ article

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Continue Reading Guest Post: Analysis of Biotech Securities Class Action Motion to Dismiss Results, 2005 – 2022