2012 Securities Class Action Statistics

On January 15, 2013, The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation released their study on the 2012 Trends in Securities Class Actions. A few interesting facts were revealed.

One fact found was that federal securities class actions continue to stay around the average, even with the credit crisis “all but ended.” The 2007-2011 average for federal securities class actions was 221, and 2012 is on pace to have 213 securities class action filings.

However, 2012 had a record low for settlements and dismissals. There were only 92 settlements in 2012 which was the lowest number since 1996. Only 60 cases were dismissed in 2012, which was a 50% reduction from 2011 and the lowest since 1998.

Lastly, the median settlement amount for federal securities class actions was $36 million in 2012. This number is close to the $42 million average from 2005-2011 and up from the 2011 average of $23 million.