What Makes Securities Class Actions with Accounting Allegations Different?

In recent years, many of the largest securities class actions filed have involved allegations that a company issued financial statements that did not conform with generally accepted accounting principles (accounting cases). In fact, from 2005 through 2010, 19 of the 20 largest settlements of securities class actions were all accounting cases. Given the rise of public attention to accounting issues, as well as the recent changes in the accounting regulatory environment, we conducted research to study how accounting cases differ from other securities class action filings (non-accounting cases).