by Daniel Costello

After one of the most volatile years in Wall Street history, news comes this week that securities fraud class-action cases are actually down.

In 2009, 169 federal securities fraud class actions were filed, as compared to 223 in 2008, according to research report issued by Cornerstone Research and Stanford Law School's Securities Class Action Clearinghouse. That amounts to a 24 percent drop.

 

The suits that made the news dominated the list — 18 of the 53 credit-crisis related filings related to Bernie Madoff and other alleged Ponzi schemes. In 2008, 100 credit-crisis related securities class action suits were filed.

To be fair, it's possible 2009 cases fell because the most profitable claims had already been filed and stock-market volatility dropped this year compared to last. But the swing is still surprising considering the extent of the recent financial crisis.

Here's a copy of the full report.