Recent Articles

Forest For The Trees

Lyle Roberts
May 28, 2011 02:03

In its Tellabs and Matrixx decisions, the Supreme Court emphasized that whether a plaintiff has adequately plead a strong inference of scienter is subject to a holistic review (i.e., the allegations in the complaint must be considered in their entirety)....

The Loss Causation Loophole

Lyle Roberts
May 21, 2011 02:49

An interesting issue, which has generated a district court split, is whether securities class actions can be brought against a mutual fund based on misstatements about the fund's investment objective and holdings. Mutual funds have argued that it is impossible...

Top Rated

Lyle Roberts
May 14, 2011 03:31

Mortgage pass-through certificates entitle the investor to distributions from underlying pools of mortgages. A key aspect of these securities are the credit ratings given to them by the ratings agencies. In In re Lehman Brothers Mortgage-Backed Securities Litigation, 2011 WL...

When A Plan Comes Together

Lyle Roberts
May 07, 2011 04:30

Can a corporate 401(k) profit-sharing plan claim a share of the settlement proceeds from a securities class action brought against the company? In In re Motorola Securities Litigation, 2011 WL 1662838 (7th Cir. May 4, 2011) the court held that...

Halliburton Argued

Lyle Roberts
April 29, 2011 22:21

Oral argument took place in the Halliburton case earlier this week. The case addresses whether the Fifth Circuit's requirement that plaintiffs establish loss causation at the class certification stage of a case exceeds what is required by Federal Rule of...

Roving Scienter

Lyle Roberts
April 23, 2011 01:59

It can be difficult for plaintiffs to adequately allege that an outside auditor acted with scienter when issuing its audit opinion. Accordingly, the Ninth Circuit's decision last week to reverse the dismissal of the securities fraud claims against an outside...

Settlement Round-Up

Lyle Roberts
April 16, 2011 04:33

A round-up of significant securities class action settlements in the first quarter of 2011: (1) Credit Suisse Group (NYSE: CS), a Switzerland-based financial services company, agreed to settle the securities class action pending against the company in the S.D. of...

Picking Sides

Lyle Roberts
April 09, 2011 04:27

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has weighed in on two controversial issues concerning loss causation and scheme liability. In In re DVI, Inc. Sec. Litig., 2011 WL 1125926 (3rd Cir. March 29, 2011), the court examined...

Two From The NYLJ

Lyle Roberts
April 02, 2011 03:23

The New York Law Journal has two securities litigation columns this week. (1) In Lower Courts Divided on Standard for Pleading Loss Causation Post-Dura (3/31/11 - subscrip. req'd), the authors discuss the split over whether loss causation is merely subject...

Matrixx Decided

Lyle Roberts
March 23, 2011 03:48

In the Matrixx Initiatives v. Siracusano case, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that the plaintiffs were not required, in a case alleging that Matrixx failed to disclose reports of a possible link between its leading drug product and the...