Are you an individual or institutional investor? Then you’ve probably heard of class action settlement recovery. Investors use a class action lawsuit to recover damages on behalf of their shareholders. Class action litigators help with handling the whole process from filing to documenting for the successful identification, tracking, and dispersion of all funds owed to investors. This usually takes the form of a lead plaintiff that represents the interest of the affected group.
It’s important to engage the services of a reputable settlement recovery law firm to monitor settlement opportunities, file claims documents, and litigate the whole process. This helps your organization focus on your core business to avoid disruption in service delivery owing to the complexity and length associated with such cases.
Steps in Securities Settlement Recovery
Securities class action lawsuits are quite lengthy and resource-intensive. Few cases usually go to trial because the defense and plaintiffs usually negotiate an out-of-court settlement approved by the court. The court also appoints an administrator to handle the suit and ensure payouts are handled accurately. Nevertheless, there are various steps to be followed before a decision is reached and a settlement is awarded.
- Data collection – Information relating to the case is gathered in various formats from reliable sources in line with know your client compliance procedures. Client data is very sensitive and the highest security measures must be observed when handling transaction information.
- Data normalization – Once the data is on hand, significant technological horsepower is required for gap detection, record correction, and forensic auditing to process the information and generate insights. Analysts can review transaction data as far back as 20 years ago when making their case.
- Eligibility analysis – It’s important to cross-reference transactions to recognize the loss figure so claimants get the right share from the settlement fund. The litigators take many factors into account by consulting a settlement database to ensure the settlement awards are accurate.
- Document verification – Filing documents and notifying their shareholders is a fiduciary responsibility to investors. Claim administrators scrutinize the documents presented carefully to ensure the right claimants are paid and also to avert fraudulent transactions. This is a time-consuming and resource-intensive activity that should be left to qualified settlement recovery lawyers to handle.
- Recognized loss calculation and settlement – This refers to the amount computed by applying the rules of a settlement to ascertain how much a claim is worth. The settlement administrator works with your litigator to reconcile and share out the accurate amount per claimant and which accounts to settle the funds on. Finally, the settlement is done through the litigator who complies with their fiduciary responsibility by notifying the plaintiff of the settlement.
Conclusion
Securities settlement recovery can be quite tedious and confusing especially if you lack industry knowledge. It is therefore prudent to have a leading securities recovery firm on retainer, especially for institutional investors to help you find future settlement opportunities for your company. Such litigators handle the complexity and resource-consuming activities such as documentation and negotiation enabling you to focus on your core business activities while the process is on-going.
