NU Online News Service, Dec. 14, 3:59 p.m. EST
U.S. federal securities class-action filings picked up in the 2010 second half, and filings are now on pace to exceed last year's total, according to NERA Economic Consulting.
While filings related to the credit crisis have died down compared to 2008 and 2009, other types of filings have made up the difference. And, NERA said, there does not seem to be any overriding trend with recent filings. The suits filed are "against a variety of companies and involving a number of different types of allegations," NERA said.
The most frequent types of cases filed in 2010, NERA said, were allegations of undisclosed product and operational defects and breach of fiduciary duty. Recent filings have targeted companies across multiple sectors, including health technology, electronic technology and finance sectors.
Securities class actions in 2010 are also being filed more quickly, according to NERA. "The median time from the end of the class period to the filing of a case plummeted to about a month for cases filed this year compared with nearly six months for cases filed in the second half of 2009," NERA said.
In total, NERA said it expects 239 filings in 2010, which would be "broadly consistent with the long-term average" and beat last year's total of 220 filings. So far, NERA said there have been 219 filings for the year. Of those filings, 123 occurred in the second half of the year.
Earlier this year, NERA predicted a decline in filings for the year compared to 2009 based on the light first-half activity.
For credit crisis-related cases, 2010 has seen 31 filings, NERA said, down from 57 last year and 103 in 2008. In fact, NERA said more than half of the filings against finance sector companies were unrelated to the credit crisis.
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