New Securities Class Suits Down 35% in Year Two of Pandemic (1)

Investor class actions alleging violations of federal securities law fell dramatically for the second year in a row, to levels not seen since 2015, a new report said.

Securities class action filings dropped 35% from 2020, landing at just 218 new cases in 2021 compared to 333 the year before, according to the annual report from Cornerstone Research and the Stanford Law School Securities Class Action Clearinghouse.

But one area actually saw a substantial increase in filings: cases involving special purpose acquisition companies, also known as SPACs, are up more than sixfold, the report released Wednesday said.

And those cases ...