The total number of securities class action lawsuit settlements reached the highest level in 15 years in 2022, and median, average, and aggregate settlement amounts also rose significantly in 2022 compared to the year prior, according a recently published annual report from Cornerstone Research. The report, entitled “Securities Class Action Settlements: 2022 Review and Analysis,” analyzes the 105 securities class action lawsuit settlements finalized in 2022 and compares them statistically with prior years’ settlements. The report can be found here. Cornerstone Research’s March 8, 2023, press release about the report can be found here.
Continue Reading Cornerstone Research: Securities Suit Settlements at High Levels in 2022
In an interesting and unusual development, the victims’ trust that was created as part of the Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) bankruptcy has reached an agreement to settle the trust’s assigned claims against PG&E’s directors and officers for $117 million. According to the parties’ settlement agreement, the settlement is to be funded entirely with proceeds from PG&E’s D&O insurance program. As discussed below, there are a number of interesting aspects and implications to this settlement A copy of the Fire Victim’s Trust’s September 29, 2022 press release about the settlement can be found 
In the latest development in the long-running FirstEnergy bribery-related derivative lawsuit settlement saga, a federal judge has granted final approval to the proposed settlement in the consolidated action pending in the Southern District of Ohio, albeit while reducing the amount of the plaintiffs’ fee award. The parties will now, with the benefit of the final settlement approval, turn to the Northern District of Ohio, where an unconsolidated parallel action remains pending, and where the presiding judge has recently appointed new counsel to prosecute the separate action. In a rational and orderly world, the separate proceeding in the Northern District of Ohio would be dismissed. However, under the actual conditions, anything could happen.
Regular readers of this blog know that one of the 
The parties to the long-running Twitter securities class action lawsuit have agreed to settle the suit for a payment of $809.5 million, one of the largest securities class action settlements of all time. The settlement is subject to court approval. A copy of the company’s September 20, 2021 press release announcing the settlement can be found 
Numerous questions surround the SEC’s new policy requiring enforcement action defendants in “egregious” cases to admit to wrongdoing in order to settle with the agency, rather than simply agreeing to neither admit nor deny the agency’s allegations. As I discussed in a prior post (
The bankruptcy context is particularly ripe for D&O claims, and it also represents a particularly difficult claims context for D&O insurers. Anyone with any doubts about just how complicated bankruptcy claims can be will want to take a look at the settlement that the various concerned parties recently reached in the bankruptcy of defunct Florida
In a sharply worded March 15, 2012 per curiam opinion (