If You Can't Sue City Hall, Can You Sue Wall Street?

Some lawsuits have been filed on behalf of investors against companies that went public during the bubble. There have not been many, in part because the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 has made class action suits more difficult. In general, these suits seek to prove that a company's executives made false and misleading statements about its business prospects and so induced investors to buy the shares. Not only are such suits difficult to prove, but most of the dot-com companies are either out of business or so strapped for cash that they have little to pay successful claimants.

In 2001, more than 1,000 legal suits were filed on behalf of shareholders in some 263 companies that ...

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