NERA Economic Consulting’s annual study, Recent Trends in Shareholder Class Action Litigation: Filings Plummet, Settlements Soar (Jan. 2007) (available here), includes a chart showing the rates of dismissal for securities class actions in the 11 U.S. circuit courts of appeals during 2006. To Blawgletter’s surprise, the Tenth Circuit (covering Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming) has by far the lowest rate — only five percent in the first two years after filing. The Third Circuit pulls up in second place with a 10 percent dismissal rate.
Do the data reflect a new plaintiffs’ paradise or poky judges in the Tenth Circuit? Probably not the latter. According to the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (chart here), the Tenth Circuit ranks fourth among the 11 circuits in the median time to disposition of civil cases. Hmm.