Joel H. Bernstein explains the downward trends found in the "Securities Class Action Filings 2014 Year in Review" Cornerstone Report
According to the recent Cornerstone Report, securities class action filings against S&P 500 companies have decreased, but Joel H. Bernstein remains confident about the future of securities class action litigation.
Joel Bernstein, partner at plaintiffs firm Labaton Sucharow LLP, said he and his colleagues had also seen an increase in accounting fraud cases in the past year.
"Those cases have always been viewed by both plaintiffs and defense lawyers as stronger cases for investors," he said.
"What I see is that people that are bent on committing securities fraud are finding ways to do it, whether it's the government or private lawyers and investors that figure out they've been doing it, there are some bad actors, and those bad actors find other ways to do it."
Bernstein, who said he continues to see new cases filed every few weeks, also noted that the Cornerstone report is not significant enough to impact what he thinks "is going on in the world."
"If somebody believes that they have been defrauded in an investment then we take a look and we see if there's been a violation," he said. "Whether it's an S&P 500 company or not, it's something that's coincidental."