In the following guest post, Jeffrey Lubitz, Executive Director of ISS Securities Class Action Services, takes a look at securities class action settlements in 2021, including aggregate figures and the largest individual settlements during the year. Jeff also notes several important trends and developments in collective investor actions outside the U.S during 2021. A version of this article previously was published on the ISS Insights blog (here). Please note that the 2021 figures below are preliminary; the final calculations will be published in January 2022. The 2021 settlement figures include all settlements with a settlement hearing date between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021; some hearings currently scheduled to take place before year end potentially could be pushed into 2022, which would shift the settlement into the 2022 settlement year. I would like to thank Jeff for allowing me to publish his article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Jeff’s article.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Shareholder Class Action Settlements Continue Strong Pace in 2021
As previously reported (
Securities class action lawsuit filings remained at elevated levels in 2019, but the mix of cases changed during the year, according to the recently published annual report from NERA Economic Consulting. According to the report, which is entitled “Recent Trends in Securities Class Action Litigation: 2019 Full-Year Review,” there were relatively fewer merger objection lawsuits during the year, and relatively more standard securities suits. NERA’s January 21, 2020 press release about the report can be found 
The number of securities class action settlements as well as the aggregate, average, and median securities class action settlement values all increased in 2016 compared to the prior year, according to the latest annual report from Cornerstone Research. The report, entitled “Securities Class Action Settlements: 2016 Review and Analysis can be found 
Aggregate and average securities class action lawsuit settlements increased significantly in 2015 compared to the year before, according to the latest annual report from Cornerstone Research. Among reasons for the increase in aggregate settlement amounts is the increase in the absolute number of settlements during the year. The increase in the average settlement amount is largely attributable to an increase in the number of “mega” settlements. While overall and average settlement amounts increased during the year, the number of smaller settlements also increased, and median settlement amounts held steady. The Cornerstone Research report, entitled “Securities Class Action Settlements: 2015 Review and Analysis,” can be found 
What are the factors that affect the timing of securities class action lawsuit dismissals and that affect the timing and size of securities suit settlements? These are the questions examined in an April 2012 PLUS Journal article entitled “When Are Securities Class Actions Dismissed, When Do They Settle and For How Much? An Update” (
The negotiated resolution of securities class action lawsuits – and absent dismissal, there is rarely any other types of securities suit resolution – is always complicated and occasionally messy, and often involves inefficiencies and sometimes produces distortions and even excesses. Anyone who has ever been through a securities suit settlement negotiation likely will have had
After the 
Though the average dollar value of securities class action settlements approved in 2010 declined slightly compared to 2009, the median settlement amount reached record levels, according to Cornerstone Research’s annual 2010 Securities Class Action Settlement Study. Cornerstone’s March 10, 2010 press release about the study can be found 
RiskMetrics has issued its year-end 2009 scorecard of the Top 100 securities class action lawsuit settlements. The list, which is updated quarterly, can be accessed on the Securities Litigation Watch blog (