Over the past two days, plaintiffs’ attorneys have launched a couple of new securities lawsuits. Nothing particularly noteworthy about that, in and of itself. But upon closer review, there are some rather interesting things about these new lawsuits. I note my observations below after briefly describing each of the two new lawsuits.
The first
The $277.5 million jury verdict in the Apollo Group securities lawsuit caused a great sensation at the time it was returned in January 2008 (as discussed here). The verdict heartened plaintiffs’ attorneys and it served as a counterweight to the defense verdict in the virtually contemporaneous JDSU Uniphase securities lawsuit trial (which is discussed
That sure didn’t take long.
GT Solar International completed its $500 million IPO on July 23, 2008. Then on August 1, 2008, a mere seven trading days later, the plaintiffs’ lawyers initiated a purported securities class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire against the company and
Following close on the heels of the Cornerstone mid-year report released earlier in the day, on July 29, 2008, NERA Economic Consulting also released its mid-year 2008 securities class action report entitled “2008 Trends: Subprime and Auction Rate Cases Continue to Drive Filings, and Large Settlements Keep Averages High” (here). A copy of the
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
A June 5, 2008 proposal by the Financial Accounting Standards Board that could require public companies to disclosure more about their litigation risks is generating a storm of controversy. As discussed in Zusha Elinson’s June 24, 2008 Law.com article entitled "GC’s Bristle at Proposed Disclosure Rules" (here), under the proposed revision to FASB Statement
In flush times, the balm from the boom economy covers a multitude of sins. But when the economy sours, even transactions that once appeared favorable can turn bad. When they do, lawsuits can, and usually do, arise. Two recently filed securities class action lawsuits illustrate this point and also suggest that adverse economic circumstances may
Over the last several years, Congress has made several different efforts to concentrate class action litigation in federal court.
For example, in the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998 (SLUSA), Congress amended portions of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to preempt class actions alleging fraud under
About the UnitedHealth Group Class Action Settlement: UnitedHealth Group announced on July 2, 2008 (here) that it reached an agreement to settle its high profile options backdating-related securities class action lawsuit for $895 million. A July 3, 2008 Law.com article discussing the settlement can be found here.
Not only is this
Securities lawsuit filings remained elevated during the first half of 2008. The 105 new securities lawsuit filings during the first six months of 2008 were more than 50% higher than the number of new securities lawsuit filings (69) in the first six months of 2007. (Please refer to the note below regarding my lawsuit filing “count”, which may