D&O Insurance Litigation Continues to Rise
The D&O insurance industry has seen a significant increase in claims involving securities class action suits in recent years, as we have written about in the past. A study published by Advisen provides insight into some of the claims trends that affected the industry for Directors & Officers insurance in 2016, as summarized below. Trend Toward Suing Smaller Companies In the past, large companies were more likely to be hit with a securities class action lawsuit. In fact, the bigger the company (as measured by its market capitalization), the likelier it was to face a securities lawsuit. More recently, this trend has changed. Increasingly, smaller companies, which used to be perceived as less risky from a litigation standpoint, are facing securities suits. One reason for the trend to target smaller firms is attributed to the entrant of new law firms, which are building their practice based on the initial pursuit of smaller entities. These smaller lawsuits can be less...