by James Goldfarb, Brendan T. Mangan, Ted Snyder, and Cameron Matheson
From left to right: James Goldfarb, Brendan T. Mangan, Ted Snyder, and Cameron Matheson (photos courtesy of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP)
The number of securities class actions filed last year fell for the fourth year in a row. But these time-consuming, costly litigations still target 5 percent of all S&P 500 companies in an average year, and settlement costs rose in 2022. Those and other insights emerge from annual surveys published by NERA Economic Consulting and Cornerstone Research, two economic-consulting firms.[1] In this post, we summarize the data and trends revealed in those reports. The information highlighted here provides some perspective and benchmarks in terms of industries targeted, litigation length, potential offramps (mainly moving to dismiss or settling), and settlement costs. We conclude with some key takeaways.