Finacial Downturn, Not Fraud, Caused Plaintiffs’ Losses: In a ruling that is interesting for what it says about the relevance of the overall economic downturn to the wave of subprime lawsuits, on August 20, 2009, Eastern District of Pennsylvania Judge R. Barclay Surrick, Jr. granted the motion to dismiss the securities fraud lawsuit that Luminent
More About Extraterritoriality and the U.S. Securities Laws
While we wait to see whether the U.S. Supreme Court will grant the pending petition for a writ of certiorari in connection with the Second Circuit’s recent landmark opinion in the Morrison v, National Australia Bank case, the lower courts must continue to wrestle with questions regarding the extraterritorial application of the U.S. securities laws
Recent Filings Confirm Securities Lawsuit Trends
I hate to sound like a broken record a broken record, but as the third quarter securities lawsuit filings continue to come in, certain definite trends are clearly emerging. As I previously noted (here), the most recent filings are characterized by a high number of new lawsuits against companies outside the financial sector
Recent Securities Suit Filings Reinforce “Backlog” Theory
My suggestion (here) that the apparent second quarter securities lawsuit filing lull was due in part to the fact that plaintiffs’ lawyers have a backlog of cases outside the financial sector has proven controversial. All I can say that there is an increasing amount of evidence consistent with the backlog hypothesis. Specifically, a
Web Notes and Updates
Another Subprime-Related Securities Lawsuit Dismissal: In yet another subprime-related securities class action lawsuit decision in defendants’ favor, on July 29, 2009, District of Connecticut Judge Stefan Underhill granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss in the securities lawsuit pending against CBRE Realty Finance and certain of its directors and officers. A copy of the opinion can
Advisen Releases Second Quarter 2009 Securities Litigation Study
In a July 31, 2009 report , Advisen became the latest group to confirm that securities litigation declined in the second quarter of 2009, noting in its report entitled "Securities Litigation Drops in Q2 2009" (here) that securities lawsuit filings "fell off in the second quarter from the frantic first quarter." Advisen’s July
NERA Releases Mid-Year 2009 Securities Litigation Study
On July 27, 2009, NERA Economic Consulting became the latest to publish a mid-year analysis of the year to date securities litigation developments. The NERA report, written by Stephanie Plancich and Svetlana Starykh, is entitled "Recent Trends in Securities Class Actions Litigation: 2009 Mid-Year Update," and can be found here. The NERA Report
Another Subprime Securities Lawsuit Settlement
In a July 15, 2009 motion (here), the plaintiff in the subprime-related securities class action lawsuit involving RAIT Financial Trust moved for preliminary approval of a proposed settlement of the case. According to the company’s May 27, 2009 filing on Form 8-K (here), the parties entered a preliminary agreement on May
Lawsuits May Be Down, But the Plaintiffs’ Lawyers Haven’t Gone Away
As I have shown (Cornerstone Releases Mid-Year 2009 Securities Litigation Report
The 2009 securities lawsuit filings have been characterized by an overall decline in filing activity, particularly in the second quarter, as well as the continued prevalence of lawsuits against financial sector issuer-defendants, according to a July 20, 2009 study by the Stanford Law School Securities Class Action Clearinghouse in cooperation with Cornerstone Research. The