TheCorporateCounsel.net

July 22, 2022

Securities Litigation: 2022 First Half Stats

Kevin LaCroix keeps close tabs on securities class action filings, and recently blogged on the “D&O Diary” about how the first half of 2022 is shaping up in comparison with prior years. This excerpt summarizes his findings:

The number of securities class action lawsuit filings in the first half of 2022 remained at the lower levels that prevailed last year and below the more elevated levels that prevailed during the period 2017-2020. Though the number of securities class action lawsuit filings in the year’s first six months is below the recent higher levels, the number of suits filed is still consistent with long-term averages. The difference in the number of filings so far this year and the elevated numbers during the recent period were both largely due to merger objection lawsuit filings patterns.

According to my tally, there were 103 federal court securities class action lawsuits filed in the first half of 2022. That first half number annualizes to a projected year-end total of 206, which would be slightly below the 211 federal court securities class action lawsuits filed in 2021 and well below the 319 federal court securities suits filed in 2020.

Kevin goes on to explain that while there’s still a booming business in federal court merger objection filings, most of these cases are not being filed as class actions, but as individual lawsuits. That’s why they don’t show up in the stats.

John Jenkins