WASHINGTON--A recent decline in stockholder class action suits is more likely due to a 1995 litigation reform measure than financial and accounting requirements of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the drafter of the later bill told underwriters.

Former U.S. Rep. Michael Oxley, R-Ohio, said he wished he could take credit for the near historic low point for securities class actions, "but frankly I think it was the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act [PSLRA]."

The 1995 law raised procedural hurdles for bringing securities class actions to federal court in an attempt to stop plaintiffs' lawyers from bringing an action anytime a company's stock price fell.

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