Laura Simmons reports on plunging securities settlements

Accounting Professor Laura Simmons' research was reported on in Business Insurance magazine. The average securities class action settlement fell 50% to $31.2 million in 2008, according to a report released by Cornerstone Research in March 2009, but authors of the report note this trend may not continue. Read the story in BusinessInsurance.com.

The report, "Securities Class Action Settlements: 2008 Review and Analysis," said the sharp drop can be attributed to the decline in multibillion-dollar settlements. The median settlement amount of cases in 2008 was $8 million, compared with $9 million in 2007, an all-time high for all cases settled between 1996 through 2007, according to Boston-based Cornerstone. View the full report.