The reports put out regularly by Cornerstone Research about the volume and type of securities class actions being filed across the country are must-reads for the securities defense bar. By default, that makes them must-reading for us here at the Litigation Daily.

Cornerstone’s latest midyear report, compiled with the Stanford Law School Securities Class Action Clearinghouse and published late last month, found 182 new class action securities filings during the first half of the year, a 18% drop from the second half of 2019. That drop was perhaps to be expected given the state of the courts during the COVID-19 pandemic, but surprising all the same given volatility in the markets.