Global Expertise
Outside the U.S the bulk of international Securities Class Actions occur in Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and the rest of Europe, while Asian countries are beginning to implement systems similar to those in North America and Europe. As obstacles to bringing Securities Class Actions in overseas securities not traded on U.S exchanges have been put in place in the U.S, so courts around the world have opened their doors to Securities Class Actions or ‘group litigation’.
There are at least twenty-one countries that have adopted some type of Securities Class Action, and at least a further six countries that have some form of consolidated group proceedings in addition to, or instead of, a Securities Class Action. Several other countries are actively debating the adoption of a Securities Class Action regime. We are tracking over 130 current international claims. Due to the fact that non-U.S legislation generally requires participants to register at the beginning of a case (hence the importance of regularly conducting an FSL Data-Run© (see Claims Monitoring section )), Investment Managers and Funds need to participate now so they and their underlying clients do not miss their rightful returns.
FSL Process for Securities Class Actions outside the US
A variety of obstacles make filing difficult for non-U.S Securities Class Action claims like:
- Various county and country laws;
- Different mechanisms for group litigation; and
- Lack of transparency and communication from international administrators.
FSL provides a monitoring system that helps reduce the risk of missing any potentially significant recovery opportunities outside the U.S, and provides the expertise and guidance to navigate the complex ‘group litigation’ action mechanisms employed in different regions of the world (see Claims Monitoring section).
FRT’s proprietary global database of pending, current and past Securities Class Action lawsuits and settlements monitors all international Securities Class Action or group litigation claims.
FRT’s web crawling algorithm identifies international Securities Class Action industry or group litigation trends published online, as well as detect changes on various industry websites, such as plaintiff law firm sites and litigation funding company sites.
This process alerts us to new settlements and registration announcements globally. Once we are alerted to these announcements, we can include them in our database’s eligibility analysis just as we would with any U.S filing.
After an FSL Data-Run© we can match Investment Managers’ or Funds’ historical transaction data with those international claims. We can identify and file for all eligible international Securities Class Action lawsuits or ‘joinder’ to any group litigation, saving the client the administrative burden associated with international claims handling (international systems vary but see the see Claims Filing section for an overview).
We assist in successful international claims recovery for Investment Managers, including:
- Analysing trading history for relevant transactions;
- Using a suite of proprietary technology tools to identify transactions in the relevant trading period and calculate economic losses where appropriate;
- Coordinating with litigation organisers in different countries;
- Accessing a global network of privileged relationships with attorneys, litigation funding companies and investor services groups in a number of jurisdictions;
- Processing and submitting of claims transactions;
- Carrying out the processing necessary for our clients to participate in non-U.S securities litigation which typically includes presenting the litigation organiser with our clients’ transaction history and ‘cleansed’ data; and
- Researching specific case and jurisdiction requirements.Accessing a substantial knowledge-base of information, including a library of case and country profiles), and access to a team of researchers to carry out bespoke investigation and research about the legal mechanisms available to Investment Managers in non-U.S jurisdictions.