LegalMetric, a litigation data mining firm, says that investors in Bernard Madoff’s alleged Ponzi scheme should be prepared to wait years for any recovery via securities litigation. In a press release today, Greg Upchurch, director of research for LegalMetric, stated that “it takes over three years for securities cases to go to trial in federal court in Manhattan or Brooklyn, with jury trials occurring somewhat sooner than bench trials.” Already, at least two securities class actions have been filed in the New York federal courts in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
According to LegalMetric’s “Southern District of New York Securities Litigation Study,” the average securities case that settles take over 2 1/2 years to reach that point, with 10 percent of such cases taking more than five years to settle.
