Because securities class action lawsuits under Section 10 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 so rarely go to trial (a topic I addressed in a recent post, here), questions about how damages are calculated are not often addressed directly. Section 28(a) of the ’34 Act specifies that no plaintiff shall
Rare Securities Suit Trial Produces Jury Verdict Against Former Longtop Financial CFO
On November 21, 2014, after a securities class action trial that lasted less than three days and after less than a day of deliberation, an eight-person jury entered a verdict holding former Longtop Financial Technologies CFO Derek Palaschuk liable for the company’s alleged misrepresentations about its financial condition. According to Nate Raymond’s November 21, 2014
Tesco Accounting Scandal Draws Securities Class Action Lawsuit
When Tesco PLC announced on September 22, 2014 that its previously forecast first-half profit had been overstated by £250 ($408.8 million), the news of the accounting irregularities was “serious,” as Tesco plc’s CEO of less than a month’s standing at the time put it. The company also announced that the overstatement, first flagged when an
Another Environmental Disclosures Securities Suit Survives Initial Pleading Hurdles
In recent months, there have been a number of securities class action lawsuits filed based on alleged misrepresentations of the defendant company’s environmental compliance. On August 7, 2014, the securities suit filed against Exide Technologies and certain of its directors and officers based on the defendants’ allegedly misleading statements about the company’s compliance with environmental
Cornerstone Research Releases Securities Litigation Report for the First Half of 2014
According to the latest report from Cornerstone Research, the number of securities class action lawsuit filings during the first half of 2014 were down compared to historical filings semiannual filing levels although slightly higher than the number of filings in the first half of 2013. The report, which is entitled Securities Class Action Filings –
Securities Suits Hit Firms Allegedly Using Stock Promoters to Boost Share Price
On July 30, 2014, when a plaintiff shareholder filed a securities class action lawsuit against the company and certain of its directors and officers, Galectin Therapeutics became the latest company to be hit with a securities suit following press reports that the company had used a stock promotion firm to try to boost its share
Dark Pool Class Action Securities Suit Filed Against Barclays
On July 28, 2014, in the latest securities suit to be filed in the wake of high-profile concerns about ‘high frequency trading,” a plaintiff shareholder filed a securities class action lawsuit in the Southern District of New York against Barclays and certain of its officers relating to the company’s operation of and alleged statements about
Guest Post: Class Certification Timing and the IndyMac MBS Case in the Supreme Court
As I discussed in a prior post (here), in March 2014 the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up the IndyMac case in order to consider whether the filing of a class action lawsuit tolls the statute of repose under the Securities Act (by operation of so-called “American Pipe” tolling) or whether the
Arguments to Keep the Fraud on Market Theory, and Thinking About a World Without It
As the March 5, 2014 date for oral argument before the United States Supreme Court in the closely-watched Halliburton case approaches, the briefing process in the case has continued to unfold. On January 29, 2014, the Erica P. John Fund, the respondent (the plaintiff in the underlying action) filed its merits brief in the case,
Cornerstone Research: Securities Suit Filings Increase in 2013, Filing Rate Above Historical Averages
Considered on an absolute basis, securities class action lawsuit filings were up about nine percent in 2013 compared to 2012, although the number of 2013 lawsuits was about 13 percent below annual filings averages for the years 1996-2012, according to a new report from Cornerstone Research and the Stanford Law School Securities Class Action Clearinghouse.