Fee Shifting Bylaws and the "Supporting" Rational (Part 1)
Fee shifting bylaws have their supporters. Certainly those who benefit from them are supportive. They will reduce the number of law suits against directors and corporations. The Chamber supports this, having opposed the efforts by the Delaware legislature to do away with the bylaws. So does Steve Bainbridge.
No one gives as a reason the need to insulate directors from liability for their bad acts. Instead, proponents of the bylaws argue that they are necessary to prevent frivolous or excessive litigation. Steve's post is titled "The case for allowing fee shifting bylaws as a privately ordered solution to the shareholder litigation epidemic." So bylaws are a solution to the "litigation epidemic."
His post mostly focuses on litigation under the federal securities laws. His argument that securities cases are filed in excessive numbers is weak. He notes a number of studies from 2006 to 2007 that suggest the amount of securities litigation is excessive. These studies were always open to question. The idea that the decline in foreign listings on the stock exchanges could be explained by the fear of litigation risk (rather, say, than the increased quality of the exchange in the home market), was always questionable. But in any event the studies are based on data that is no longer accurate.
Thus, Steve notes the following: "Between 1997 and 2005 there was a steady increase in both the number of securities class action filings and the average settlement value of those suits." During the selected period, approximately 250 securities class action suits were filed each year--an average increased by the 498 actions filed in 2001 as a result of the raft of IPO allocation cases (The data is on the Stanford Securities Class Action Site). But an examination of the data since 2005? The nine year average from 2006 through Dec. 14, 2014 is 166, with 2014 on course to have the second lowest number of securities class action laws suits (144) since 1996.
The numbers have likely come down because of the PSLRA (cases being dismissed for failing to demonstrate a "strong inference" of scienter) and the Supreme Court (Janus, for example). His analysis, therefore, does not take into account recent data, does not establish that there is a litigation epidemic, and certainly doesn't explain how the market will benefit from reducing the number of class actions below 144. Indeed, he concedes the "obvious benefits" of an "effective anti-fraud regime."