NERA has released “Recent Trends in Securities Class Action Litigation: 2023 Full-Year Review,” the latest edition of its annual report. The report continues our analysis of filing, dismissal, and settlement trends and presents new analyses related to current topics.
Associate Director Svetlana Starykh and Senior Consultant Edward Flores, the report’s authors, utilize NERA’s proprietary database of securities class actions, which spans more than three decades.
Highlights from the 2023 report include:
- After a four-year decline, 2023 had an increase in new federal securities class action suits, with 228 new cases filed, a rise from the 206 cases filed in 2022.
- Fueled by turmoil in the banking industry, filings in the finance sector more than doubled in 2023, comprising 18% of new filings.
- In 2023, filings related to the environment quadrupled from their 2022 level.
- The number of resolved cases decreased by 15% to 190 from 223 in 2022, continuing a six-year decline in resolutions seen since 2018 and marking the lowest recorded level of resolutions in the last 10 years.
- Aggregate settlements for 2023 totaled $3.9 billion, which marks a slight drop relative to the inflation-adjusted total of $4.2 billion from 2022.
- 206 standard cases, which contain alleged violations of Rule 10b-5, Section 11, and/or Section 12, accounted for most new filings in 2023.
- Of the 228 cases filed, 31% included an allegation related to missed earnings guidance and 29% included an allegation related to misled future performance.
- There were 16 crypto-related federal filings, a 28% decline from the 26 filings observed in 2022.
- Aggregate plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees and expenses totaled $972 million, accounting for 24.9% of the 2023 aggregate settlement value.
- The median Investor Losses were $923 million, a 6% decline relative to 2022 and the second highest recorded value during the 2014–2023 period.
NERA has reported on trends in securities class actions for over three decades and is an industry leader in advising clients in the economics of securities, finance, and commerce.
