Continuing their series of "trends" studies for non-US securities class actions, NERA Economic Consulting has released a study of securities litigation trends in the Australia market.

Covering the period from 1993 - 2009, the study has several notable findings, chief among them:

• New case filings have accelerated in recent years.
• The vast majority of Australian actions settle.
• Cases are concentrated in the financial industry

According to the authors (and borne out by our own SCAS data), securities class action filings in Australia set a new record in 2009, breaking the previous record set in 2008.  Moreover, the total number of new cases filed in 2007-2009  represents half of all securities class action cased ever filed in Australia.

As with US cases, a majority of Australian cases alleged either misleading or deceptive conduct, or failure by companies to promptly disclose information material to the value of their securities.

Also, more than half of all securities class actions were brought against companies in the "financial industry," though the report has a broad definition of that term, including both real estate and insurance companies for example.

The study also found that a super-majority of securities class action cases in Australia settle. Of the 12 class actions resolved by the end of 2009, 8, or 75%, were settled.  Apparently, this trend has become even more pronounced in recent years – every case filed after 2003 that has been resolved was settled.

The full report can be downloaded here.