The volume of securities class action filings in the U.S. remained steady in the first half — but the basis for these actions, and the dollars at stake, are evolving, according to the latest data from Cornerstone Research and the Stanford Law School Securities Class Action Clearinghouse.
The total number of filings was flat in the first half, with 114 securities class actions brought during the period, compared with 115 in the previous six months.
“While overall filing volume was steady, filings were notably front-loaded,” said Alexander Aganin, senior vice-president at Cornerstone and a co-author of a new report on the data. Specifically, there were 67 filings in the first quarter, dropping to 47 in the second quarter.
There was also an increase in AI-related filings in the first half, the report noted — with 12 AI-based cases brought in the first six months of this year, versus 15 filings for the full year of 2024.
The rise in AI-related cases was attributed largely to “AI-washing” claims — shareholders alleging that companies misrepresented their use of AI to boost their valuations.
At the same time, “cryptocurrency-related filings are poised to increase, while Covid-19-related filings are on pace to decline sharply,” the report noted.
And while the total volume of filings was essentially flat year over year, the potential damages in the cases filed in the first half were up notably, the report said.
According to the report, the total “disclosure dollar loss” — the change in market cap between the day before and the day after the end of the class action period — represented by the cases filed in the first half rose sharply to US$403 billion, up from US$259 billion in the previous six months.
Similarly, the “maximum dollar loss” — the change in market cap from a company’s highest stock price during the class period to the day after the class period — also jumped from US$730 billion in the cases filed in the second half of 2024 to US$1.9 trillion in the cases filed in the first half of 2025.
“The big news in these trends are the dollars at risk and AI. For investors, the claims’ dollar value can be far more important than the number of companies sued. ‘Mega-litigation’ — big claims against big companies — is key,” according to Joseph Grundfest, professor at Stanford Law and former regulator.