After three straight years of increases in the number of federal court securities class action lawsuit filings, the number of federal court securities suits decreased in 2025 relative to 2024, to the lowest level since 2021, according to the latest annual report from NERA Economic Research Associates. In addition, the annual number of dismissals increased in 2025, the number of settlements decreased, but the median securities suit settlement was at a ten-year high. The NERA report, which is entitled “Recent Trends in Securities Class Action Litigation: 2025 Full-Year Review,” can be found here.
According to the NERA Report, there were 207 new federal court class action lawsuit filings in 2025, compared to 232 in 2024, representing a decline of 11%. Before breaking these numbers down further, a word about NERA’s counting methodology is appropriate. Like other publicly available securities suit tracking sources, NERA counts two (or more) lawsuits filed in the same circuit based on the same defendant and the same allegations as only one lawsuit filing. However, and by contrast to other sources, NERA counts two lawsuits with the same allegations and filed in different circuits twice — if the two are later consolidated, NERA adjusts its count. This methodological approach may cause NERA’s numbers to differ slightly from other publicly available sources – though it should be noted that the various sources are generally directionally consistent. One final note about the NERA count – it is limited to federal court securities suit filings only; it does not include state court securities class action lawsuit filings.
The 207 federal court securities suits filed in 2025 is the lowest annual number of filings since 2022, when there were 204 filings. As of November 2025, there were 5,497 companies listed on the NYSE and Nasdaq, meaning that about 3.8% of companies listed on the U.S. exchanges were subject to securities class action suits in 2025.
Several factors affected the number of securities suit filings in 2025. Among the contributing factors was the number of artificial intelligence (AI)-related securities suit filings. According to NERA, there were 17 AI-related filings in 2025, representing 8% of all federal court securities suit filings, slightly more than the 16 AI-related filings in 2024. There were also 14 crypto-related filings, representing an increase of 75% over the 8 crypto-related case filings in 2024.
While the AI suits and crypto cases contributed to the 2025 total number of filings, declines in 2025 compared to 2024 in certain other long-term filing trends contributed to the overall drop in the number of 2025 filings. Thus, for example, there were, according to NERA, only five SPAC-related filings in 2025, representing an 86% decrease from the 36 SPAC-related suits in 2024. Similarly, there were only three COVID-related suits filed in 2025, compared to 19 COVID-related suit filings in 2024. Indeed, the decline in filings during 2025 just with respect to these two long-term filings trends alone more than account for the decline in the total number of 2025 filings compared to the number of 2024 filings.
The number of federal court securities suits filed against non-U.S. companies also declined in 2025 compared to 2024. In 2025, there were 25 securities suits filed against non-U.S. companies, compared to 36 securities suits filed against non-U.S. companies in 2024, representing a decline of about 30%. The 25 securities suits filed against non-U.S. companies in 2025 is the lowest annual number since at least 2016.
The NERA report has some interesting analysis about the declining number of suits against foreign companies. Figure 6 on page 7 of the report shows that for the years 2016 through 2021, the percentage of all federal court securities suits filed against foreign companies was greater that the percentage of non-U.S. companies among all companies listed on the U.S. exchanges (in other words, non-U.S. companies were getting sued at a greater rate than their presence on the stock exchanges would otherwise suggest.) However, as the chart also shows, in 2021, the lines crossed (literally) and each year since, the percentage of all securities suits against non-U.S. companies has been less than the percentage of foreign companies on the U.S. exchanges, meaning that non-U.S. companies are getting sued at a lower rate than their presence on the U.S. exchanges might otherwise suggest.
An important detail to consider in analyzing these changes in securities suit frequency against non-U.S. companies is that the listings of non-U.S. companies as a percentage of all U.S.-listed companies has been increasingly steadily since 2016. Thus, in 2016, non-U.S. companies represented only 17.4% of all U.S.-listed companies, whereas in 2025, non-U.S. companies represented 28.8% of all U.S.-listed companies. Since 2020, the percentage of all securities suit filings represented by suits against non-U.S. companies has declined. I have my suspicions about what is going on here (I think it may have something do with an increase in the number of publicly traded finance vehicles registered in Grand Caymans and other offshore sites), but the trend lines and numbers are creating some very interesting dynamics, for sure.
The NERA report also shows that the number of case resolutions overall increased in 2025 relative to 2024, but the numbers of case dismissals and case settlements moved in opposite directions. Thus, while the number of case dismissals increased in 2025 to 155 from 116 in 2024, representing an increase of 34%, the number of settlements declined to 79 in 2025 from the 94 in 2024, representing a decrease of 16%. The number of standard or traditional case settlements in 2025 (72) was the lowest number since 2020.
The report has an interesting analysis of the outcomes of cases in which motions to dismiss are filed. As reflected in Figure 15 on page 18 of the report, during the period January 2016 through December 2025, motions to dismiss were filed in 96% of all cases. Of these cases in which motions to dismiss were filed, plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed 21% of case – I just want to make sure everyone registers this: plaintiffs’ lawyers voluntarily dismiss one out of every five cases in which motions to dismiss are filed, a statistic I find nothing short of astonishing.
The report’s motions to dismiss analysis shows further that of the cases in which motions are pending but that are not resolved before the court rules on the motions (representing 73% of the cases in which motions to dismiss are filed), the motions are granted 62% of the time (55% with prejudice, 7% without prejudice), while the motions are denied either in full or in part 38% of the time. These figures certainly underscore why the dismissal motion stage is such a critical stage in securities class action lawsuits. The volume of cases that are either voluntarily dismissed before the dismissal motion ruling, or that are dismissed after the ruling, represents a huge percentage of the overall volume of securities suits filed.
Not only did the number of securities suits settled decline in 2025, but the aggregate value of the settlements also declined. The aggregate value of settlements in 2025 was $2.9 billion, as compared to the inflation-adjusted $3.9 billion in 2024, representing a 25% decline, and a 33% decline from the inflation-adjusted 2022 total of $4.4 billion.
There were no 2025 settlements of $1 billion or greater; the two largest 2025 settlements were Alibaba Group Holdings ($433.5 million) and General Electric Company ($362 million). The ten largest 2025 settlements ranged from $80 million to $433.5 million and together accounted for $1.7 billion, or 59%, of the $2.9 billion 2025 aggregate securities settlements amount.
The amount of the average securities suit settlement in 2025 was $40 million, representing a 9% decline from the 2024 inflation-adjusted average of $44 million, but also representing a 63% increase from the inflation-adjusted 2021 average settlement of $24 million.
The median 2025 securities suit settlement value was $17.3 million, representing a 21% increase relative to the inflation-adjusted $14.3 million median settlement in 2024, and also the largest annual median settlement value during the 2016-2025 period.
In 2025, aggregate plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees and expenses awarded totaled $797 million, compared to $1.063 billion in 2024, representing a 25% decline. Plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees and expenses represented about 27.1% of the $2.9 billion in aggregate settlements in 2025.
The NERA report has much more detail than I have summarized or commented on here. The report is worth reading at length and in full.