As the stock markets improved last year, it appears, demand for federal shareholder lawsuits diminished.
The number of federal class-action securities lawsuits filed in 2012 amounted to 152 cases, according to a new study by Cornerstone Research. That’s below the level in 2011, in which 188 suits were filed, and the average of the 15 years prior, which was 193.
And that drop was consistent across a broad array of potential legal areas. Federal lawsuits filed over announced mergers, for example, fell by nearly a third in 2012 from 2011, to 13 cases. (The study’s authors caution that the drop may be because plaintiffs are pursuing claims in state courts, rather than turning to the federal court system.)
Filings against Chinese companies that pursued stock listings in the United States â€" at one point a red-hot topic â€" tumbled to 10 cases last year, from 31 in the prior year.
And new lawsuits tied to the financial crisis finally disappeared for the first time, as the market turoil of 2008 receded even further into the distance.
