Class Actions

A class action lawsuit is an important tool which allows multiple plaintiffs to join together to recover damages, frequently against a large, well-capitalized corporate defendant. Class action lawsuits are designed to recover damages for a group or “class” of investors who sustained losses from the same situation or investment.

Many individual investors participate in class action lawsuits because the size of their loss is too small to merit an individual claim or the investment at issue was not held with a full-service brokerage firm. Also, class actions can frequently cut the overall costs each member of the class has to pay for the lawsuit at issue.

Scott Silver, Silver Law Group’s managing partner, says “Most frequently, class actions are brought against companies for materially misrepresenting facts about the company, or failing to disclose certain information about the company that they were obligated to disclose to investors.”

Our attorneys have extensive class action experience with a particular focus on representing investors in claims against third party professionals relating to ponzi schemes. This unique practice area helps investors recover damages from ponzi schemes from the professionals who materially assist the ponzi scheme or otherwise participated in the fraud. Scott Silver is a frequent speaker about recovering money for ponzi scheme victims and highlights how Silver Law Group recovers money for investors by pursuing class action claims against third party professionals, finra arbitration claims against the financial advisors who promote or sell the scheme and SEC whistleblower claims reported against the perpetrators of the ponzi scheme.

There are many advantages to litigating in the form of a class action lawsuit for all members of a class. This includes the following:

• Lower litigation costs; all costs will be divided among class members rather than one party bearing the costs;
• Smaller claims can be pursued; due to the high costs of litigation, sometimes small claims slip through the cracks. Class action lawsuits allow them to be grouped with many other claims;
• Efficiency; a class action is decided by one judge, leading to a uniform decision and damages for all members of the class.

The biggest reasons for pursuing class actions are often to lower costs and make the process more efficient, which provides aggrieved investors a better way to recover their losses.

In recent years, Wall Street firms have created their own alternative investment products to sell to their investors. These alternative investments include private placements, principal-protected notes, and managed futures funds, among others. Investment losses in these proprietary investment products frequently lead to class actions and securities arbitration claims due to the way they are sold to investors or the characteristics of the products themselves. Our attorneys have extensive experience in claims against Wall Street firms for the sale of deceptive or fraudulent investments.

Securities class action lawsuits generally fall into one of several categories such as fraud Securities and Exchange Act Violations including violations of Rule 10b(5), Ponzi schemes, accounting fraud, and others.

Silver Law Group has handled class action lawsuits throughout the country. Commercial banks have obligations to know their customers and report suspicious activity. Silver Law Group is experienced in pursuing claims against the investment banks and brokerage firms which act as the selling agent or underwriter of the securities which caused the economic losses as well as corporate issuers.

• Silver Law Group helped a class of investors recover $150 million against a large national brokerage firm. Most recently, Silver Law Group served as lead attorneys in a class action against defunct digital currency exchange Cryptsy. Our firm’s work lead to a settlement and has thus far collected over $1 million on behalf of aggrieved investors in excess of $100 million.
• In re Woodbridge Investments Litigation (Comerica Bank), Silver Law Group filed a class action lawsuit against Comerica bank relating to an alleged $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme operated by Woodbridge Holdings resulting in a substantial settlement for investors.
• Silver Law Group is involved in a lawsuit against Umpqua Bank regarding the PFI Ponzi scheme. The lawsuit alleges that Umpqua was willfully ignorant in allowing PFI to comingle accounts and failing to know its customer, PFI founder Ken Casey, who started the Ponzi scheme after being released from prison for fraud.
• Silver Law Group represents the investors in claims against a large law firm for allegedly aiding and abetting an unregistered financial advisor who raised significant money for the Par Funding Ponzi scheme.
• Silver Law Group represents the investors in claims against a large national bank for allegedly aiding and abetting fraud relating to the MJ Capital Ponzi scheme.
• Silver Law Group represents the investors in claims against a large national bank for allegedly aiding and abetting fraud relating to the Beasley Ponzi scheme.

Silver Law Group has extensive experience advising clients regarding their options when considering participation in a class action lawsuit or opting out of the class action to instead pursue individual claims against a variety of potentially liable defendants. There are advantages to both options, depending on the factual scenario from which they arise and Silver Law Group has the knowledge and experience to advise clients as to which option would best suit their legal interests.