Lex Machina Releases 2024 Securities Litigation Report

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Mar 07, 2024, 11:00 ET

While general securities cases have declined since 2021, shareholder derivative suits, class action securities cases, and cryptocurrency cases increased in 2023 compared to 2022

MENLO PARK, Calif., March 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Lex Machina, a LexisNexis company, today releases its annual Securities Litigation Report. The report examines trends in securities litigation in federal district courts and appellate courts. Focusing on the three-year period from 2021 to 2023, it surveys emerging trends in case filings, venues, judges, law firms, parties, timing metrics, case resolutions, findings, and damages. The report often focuses on different sets of data, e.g., filtering cases in order to provide analytics on general securities cases, shareholder derivative suits, class action securities cases, cryptocurrency cases, SPAC cases, and securities appellate cases.

Lex Machina's 2024 Securities Litigation Report Highlights

"By analyzing the data on securities litigation over the years, and by filtering to various subsets of cases and along different parameters, several interesting trends were revealed," said Laura Hopkins, Lex Machina's securities legal data expert and editor of the report. "For example, we can see the evolving effect of past key court rulings that continue to drive securities cases from state court to federal court. Another effect we may be witnessing is the beginnings of a shift from class action cases to individual shareholder suits, despite an uptick of both in 2023. Surveying the analytics for securities litigation allows us to map what's happening in the courts to external forces that might be driving and influencing patterns of securities litigation."

Findings from the report include:

In 2023, 1,758 securities cases were filed in federal district courts.
In the three-year period from 2021 to 2023, the highest number of securities cases was filed in the Southern District of New York, while Judge Noreika from the District of Delaware was the most active judge for securities cases.
A large bulk of the most active plaintiffs were individual litigants, while banks and financial institutions dominated the most active defendants.
Latham & Watkins represented defendants in the highest number of securities cases filed in the three-year period from 2021 to 2023.
For securities cases that were appealed to a federal appellate court and terminated from 2021 to 2023 with a decision on the merits of the appeal, 26% were ultimately reversed.
$11 billion in total damages were awarded as Approved Class Action Settlements from 2021 to 2023.

Lex Machina's reports and software enable practitioners to devise data-driven litigation strategies. The metrics in this report can help readers decide who to pursue as clients, whether to file a particular motion, or when to settle (and for how much). This research supplements traditional legal research and anecdotal data for a competitive edge in court.

Securities Litigation Report Webcast
Lex Machina is hosting a webcast to discuss the report on March 7, 2024 at noon ET/9am PT with Kevin McDonough (Partner at Latham & Watkins), Laura Hopkins (Lex Machina's Legal Data Expert in Securities Litigation), and Aria Nejad (Lex Machina's in-house counsel). Register for the event or view a recording: https://pages.lexmachina.com/2024-Securities-Report-Webcast_LP.html

About LexisNexis Legal & Professional
LexisNexis Legal & Professional® provides legal, regulatory, and business information and analytics that help customers increase their productivity, improve decision-making, achieve better outcomes, and advance the rule of law around the world. As a digital pioneer, the company was the first to bring legal and business information online with its Lexis® and Nexis® services. LexisNexis Legal & Professional, which serves customers in more than 150 countries with 11,300 employees worldwide, is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers.

About Lex Machina
Lex Machina fundamentally changes how companies and law firms compete in the business and practice of law. The company provides strategic insights on judges, lawyers, law firms, parties, and other critical information across 22 federal practice areas and a rapidly growing number of state courts. Lex Machina allows law firms and companies to anticipate the behaviors and outcomes that different legal strategies will produce, enabling them to win cases and close business.

Lex Machina was named "Great Places to Work 2023-2024", one of "Legal Tech's Most Promising Solution Providers" (CIO Review Awards 2022), "Greater Bay Area Top Workplaces 2022" (The San Francisco Chronicle Top Workplaces in the Bay Area 2022), "Legal Tech Company of the Year 2021" (CIO Review, 2021), "2021 Legal Technology Trailblazer" (National Law Journal Trailblazer Awards, 2021), Winner of the "Media Excellence" Award for Analytics/Big Data (13th Annual Media Excellence Award, 2021). Based in Silicon Valley, Lex Machina is part of LexisNexis, a leading global provider of legal, regulatory, and business information and analytics. For more information, please visit www.lexmachina.com.

SOURCE LEX MACHINA