PROTECT CONSUMER JUSTICE.ORG

Securities class-action lawsuits declined in the first half of 2010 over the prior year, dropping to pre-recession levels as the worst of the nation’s financial collapse seems to have passed, according to the semi-annual to Securities Class Action Filings—2010 Mid-Year Assessment by the Stanford Law School Securities Class Action Clearinghouse and Cornerstone Research.

The press release is here, and the full report is here.

It should be noted that the decline isn’t because big financial institutions are behaving any better. The reports says the “decline in filings is associated with a decrease in credit-crisis-related litigation, which accounted for only eight filings in the first half of 2010 compared with 37 filings in the first half of 2009 and 16 filings in the second half of 2009.”

The report said plaintiffs continue ti target the financial sector, which accounted for 29.6% of the filings.

“The securities fraud litigation wave stimulated by the credit crisis now appears to be history,” said  Joseph Grundfest, Clearinghouse director. “We have an inventory of cases waiting to be dismissed, settled, or tried, but to borrow a phrase from the current Gulf oil spill crisis, it seems that this flow has largely been capped.”

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