Settlement

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In an opinion yesterday, Judge Forrest rejected a proposed securities class action settlement in which the settlement class was defined identically to a class that she had earlier ruled could not be certified. The earlier certification denial was based in part on the plaintiffs’ failure to show class-wide reliance under the “fraud-on-the-market” presumption. The parties pointed Judge Forrest to the Second Circuit’s 2012 decision in In re AIG, Inc. Sec. Litig., which held that “[b]ecause settlement eliminates the need for trial, a settlement class ordinarily need not demonstrate that the fraud-on-the-market presumption applies to its claims in order to satisfy the predominance requirement.” But Judge Forrest ruled that the AIG case did not altogether eliminate the requirement that class-wide issues predominate, even for purposes of a settlement class, and that the parties had not made the necessary showing:
Continue Reading Judge Forrest Rejects Securities Class Action Settlement Because “Settlement Class” Failed Certification Standards

In an opinion filed today, Judge Marrero conditionally approved a $614 million insider trading settlement between the SEC and SAC Capital — the largest insider trading settlement ever (see our prior post).  The approval is contingent on a ruling from the Second Circuit that raises similar questions of whether and when it is appropriate for courts to approve SEC settlements in which the defendants neither admit nor deny wrongdoing. Judge Marrero seemed to indicate, however, his view that the practice may not be appropriate in all cases:
Continue Reading Judge Marrero Conditions Approval of $614 Million SAC Capital Settlement on Pending Second Circuit Ruling