You know something big is brewing in investor litigation when every study on last year’s rise in securities class action filings includes the caveat that the practice could come to a screeching halt in 2014. The latest report comes from Cornerstone Research, which said Tuesday that a modest increase in 2013 filings could be eclipsed by a “dramatic change” in the securities class action landscape.
Such is the perceived power of Halliburton v. Erica P. John Fund, which is being billed as the biggest threat to the securities plaintiffs bar in almost two decades. As we’ve reported, in March the U.S. Supreme Court will hear Halliburton’s challenge to the so-called fraud-on-the-market presumption in securities fraud cases, a theory that has long helped investors win class action status.
