Posts Tagged ‘securities litigation’

“Judge Tosses Boeing Suit After ‘Confidential Witness’ Recants”

Daniel Fisher at Forbes explains:

…The rise of the “confidential witness” can be traced to the Public Securities Litigation Reform Act and subsequent Supreme Court rulings, under which class-action lawyers are required to do more than just point out the obvious, that a stock price fell. They need to state “particularized facts” giving a strong inference that somebody in management, not just a faceless corporate entity, did something he or she knew was fraudulent.

To get over this hurdle, class-action lawyers frequently call upon nameless “confidential witnesses” who apparently are willing to speak with plaintiff lawyers but live in fear of their identities being revealed to anyone else.

Funny thing is, the testimony of these confidential witnesses on eventually reaching the light of day keeps not backing up the propositions the lawyers said it did. The newest embarrassment afflicts Robbins Geller, a successor law firm to Bill Lerach’s Coughlin Stoia. More: ABA Journal; City of Livonia Employees Retirement System v. Boeing.

Filed under: Coughlin Stoia, Milberg Weiss, securities litigation

Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission

Along with its formal report, the commission probing the financial crisis of 2008 has done an online archival dump of internal company documents that some hope, and others fear, will be of great help to litigators — even perhaps a “Wikileaks for the class action bar,” which with its allies was well represented on the commission and staff. [BLT; earlier]

More: David Frum has been doing a series of blog posts on the report’s substance.

Filed under: Crisis of 2008, securities litigation

January 26 roundup

Cato Institute scholars liveblog reaction to State of the Union speech and GOP response, plus video on Facebook with Gene Healy and Julian Sanchez, more video;
Private store owners get beaten up for lack of ADA ramps. On the other hand, when the federal government is building courthouses… [Sun-Sentinel; earlier here and here]
“Securities suits filed in 2010 again a record” [Business Insurance]
Do mass tort “claims facilities” enable participants to bypass the strictures of legal ethics? [Monroe Freedman, Legal Ethics Forum]
Latest workplace-retaliation ruling once more undermines “pro-business Supreme Court” narrative [Bader, Examiner, more]
Jacob Sullum reviews Daniel Okrent book on Prohibition [Reason]
Another “lawyers excited about coming wave of bet-the-company climate change suits” article [AFP]
Dickie Scruggs: “It was never about the money for me, this litigation” [four years ago on Overlawyered]

Filed under: alcohol, Cato Institute, climate change, disabled rights, ethics, global warming, securities litigation, Supreme Court

Alberto-Culver merger shareholder challenge

The National Law Journal headline puts it this way: “Two firms seek up to $6.5M for work on settlement yielding shareholders no monetary benefit.”

Filed under: class action settlements, securities litigation

January 12 roundup

Merger objections: “First Comes the Deal Announcement, Then Comes the Lawsuit” [WSJ Law Blog]
Harvey Silverglate on campus “anti-bullying” bill [Forbes]
Anna Nicole Smith case could empower bankruptcy judges, encourage forum-shoppers [Michael J. Wade, Examiner]
“Family Business Wins Same Lawsuit Twice, Now Faces It For the Third Time” [Mike LePage, U.S. Chamber ILR]
“I’ll Never File Another Asbestos Case in Texas” [Oliver]
Financial whistleblowing rules a potential “gold mine”? [WSJ Law Blog, Wood/PoL, Robert Shattuck on SEC comment process]
“Device lag at the FDA” [Tabarrok]
Cheyenne-Arapahoe tribes file land claim that includes city of Denver, but they’ll trade it for casino rights [five years ago on Overlawyered]

Filed under: bankruptcy, bullying, FDA, forum shopping, securities litigation, Texas, whistleblowers

January 7 roundup

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s firm suing Apple, Google and many others over common web features [Atlantic Wire, Groklaw (“Allen v. World and Dog”]
Probably not a good idea to give local authorities cash incentive to snatch kids from homes [Bader, CEI]
Hyperlink liability case: “If I lose there won’t BE an Internet in Canada” [Ars Technica]
Shooting spree at Denny’s results in suit charging eatery with negligent security [PNWLocalNews.com]
More links: “Do securities lawsuits help shareholders?” [Point of Law, Bainbridge]
Fourth Circuit revives CSX fraud suit against asbestos lawyers [Dan Fisher, Forbes] “Asbestos defendants want automatic access to info in bankruptcy trusts” [Chamber-backed LNL]
Creation of noncompliant consumer financial product is a criminal offense under Dodd-Frank [Josh Wright, TotM]
Man sues over seeing contestants eat rats on NBC reality show “Fear Factor” [six years ago on Overlawyered]

Filed under: asbestos, Canada, Child Protective Services, libel slander and defamation, online speech, patent trolls, restaurants, securities litigation, third party liability for crime, Washington state

“Securities Class Actions Mostly Punish Shareholders, Study Finds”

“A new study in the Financial Analysts Journal casts serious doubt on the premise [of litigation social efficiency], at least when it comes to shareholder class actions. In most cases, the authors found, the litigation mainly serves to punish shareholders who have already suffered from a downturn in their stock. Only suits targeting illegal insider trading, and to a lesser extent, accounting fraud were associated with subsequent higher long-term returns.” [Dan Fisher, Forbes; Rob Bauer and Robin Braun, “Misdeeds Matter: Long-Term Stock Performance after the Filing of Class-Action Lawsuits”] More: Coyote.

Filed under: securities litigation

Class-action firms sanctioned

In New Haven, federal judge Janet Bond Arterton has granted sanctions against two leading plaintiff’s securities firms, Labaton Sucharow and Barroway Topaz Kessler Meltzer & Check, in an unsuccessful class action against Star Gas. “Arterton agreed with Star’s counsel from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom that the class’ claims were almost entirely without merit, and that Labaton and Barroway knew as much early in the litigation. She ordered the plaintiffs firms to pay all of Star’s attorney fees and costs.” [Frankel, American Lawyer, ruling, PDF, courtesy American Lawyer]

Filed under: class actions, Connecticut, sanctions, securities litigation

September 3 roundup

TSA asserts security-line authority against … suspected embezzlers? [Coyote, Ken at Popehat]
“How the Next Hurricane Could Bankrupt Florida” [Eli Lehrer, Frum Forum]
In Yahoo settlement “vast majority of the class gets nothing” [Frith, Cal Civil Justice]
Royal road to legal riches: work for the federal prosecutor in Manhattan [David Zaring, Conglomerate]
Taxpayers, get ready to bail out union pension plans [The Lid]
Japan moving closer to U.S.-style securities litigation? [D&O Diary]
“Is the Contemporary Supreme Court Really That Conservative?” [Bartels, ConcurOp]
“EEOC encourages anonymous harassment complaints” [eleven years ago at Overlawyered]

Filed under: class action settlements, Florida, Japan, labor unions, prosecution, securities litigation, Supreme Court, terrorism

September 2 roundup

Elevator-injury case: “Citing Attorney’s Inflammatory Language, Court Erases Most of Jury Verdict” [Daily Business Report]
“Obama’s zealous civil rights enforcer gets busy” [Byron York, Examiner]
“Trend: Helicopter parents win kids in divorce” [Theresa Walsh Giarrusso, Atlanta Journal-Constitution “Momania”]
Faculty fracas: “An Angry Professor Mounts His Own Labor Protest in Alabama” [Chronicle of Higher Ed]
An opportunity for the Seventh Circuit to curb derivative strike suits? [CCAF]
Emily Bazelon on Phoebe Prince school-bullying story, cont’d [Slate, earlier]
Controversy as Louisiana governor Jindal hires longtime Overlawyered favorites Baron & Budd for BP suit [Dan Fisher, Forbes]
“Oz: A$100K for prisoner who fell out of bed” [seven years ago on Overlawyered]

Filed under: Alabama, bullying, closing arguments, colleges and universities, Fred Baron, Louisiana, securities litigation