First Quarter Filings at a Five-Year High, Second Quarter Filings at a Five-Year Low
Dismissals on Track to Increase for Second Straight Year
During the first half of 2025, 108 new federal securities class action suits were filed. Of these, 65 cases were filed in the first quarter of 2025, a five-year high, and 43 cases were filed in the second quarter, a five-year low. Assuming filings continue at the same pace in the second half of 2025, annual filings for 2025 would total 216, a slight decline from the 229 seen in 2024. Standard cases, which contain alleged violations of Rule 10b-5, Section 11, and/or Section 12, totaled 99 filings, while suits involving merger objections and crypto unregistered securities accounted for four and five filings, respectively.
There were 13 suits with AI-related claims filed in the first six months of 2025, on track to exceed the 16 such suits filed in 2024. Similarly, there were eight crypto-related filings, matching the total seen across full-year 2024. On the other hand, COVID- and SPAC-related filings declined relative to 2024, with only two and four suits filed in each category, respectively.
There were 121 cases resolved in the first half of 2025, of which 87 were dismissed and 34 were settled. Assuming resolutions continue at this pace for the rest of the year, the number of resolved cases for 2025 would be 242, which would represent a 12% increase relative to the 217 resolved cases in 2024. The growth in resolutions is driven by a substantial rise in dismissed cases, which are on track to increase for a second straight year and exceed the 124 dismissals seen in 2024. The average settlement value was $56 million, a 27% increase relative to the 2024 inflation-adjusted average settlement value of $44 million. The median settlement value was $12.5 million, a $1.8 million decline from the 2024 inflation-adjusted median settlement value of $14.3 million.
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