Nearly all securities class actions that are not dismissed settle. Very few are tried to judgment. Who pays into settlements — the corporation, its directors and officers, or its D&O carrier? Companies buy D&O insurance in order to protect themselves and their directors and officers from...

In this article, we briefly present some basic statistics on the timing of dismissals and settlements in securities class actions. In contrast to the popular image of securities class actions, we find that over half of all cases are either dismissed or settle well before discovery begins. 38% of...