How to read a securities class action docket

Information as of 16 October 2026. Everything below comes from Rule 10b-5 and Section 21D of the Securities Exchange Act, as codified, and CourtListener's docket data, linked below. If anything here is wrong, tell us at contact@oqro.io and we will correct it.

What does a securities fraud complaint allege?

Rule 10b-5 makes it unlawful, in connection with the purchase or sale of any security, to employ any device, scheme or artifice to defraud; to make any untrue statement of a material fact or to omit a material fact necessary to make the statements made not misleading; or to engage in any act, practice or course of business that operates as a fraud or deceit upon any person. A private securities class action under the rule typically alleges that the company and named officers made misleading statements during a class period, that the truth emerged on a date, and that the share price fell as a result. The SEC brings its own actions under the same rule and others; on OQRO those are marked as SEC rather than private plaintiff.

What did the 1995 reform act change?

Section 21D of the Securities Exchange Act, at 15 U.S.C. 78u-4, added by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, governs private securities class actions. Within 20 days of filing, the plaintiff has to publish a notice advising members of the purported class of the pendency of the action, the claims and the class period, and stating that any member may move to serve as lead plaintiff within 60 days of the notice. Within 90 days of the notice the court appoints as lead plaintiff the member it determines to be most capable of adequately representing the class, with a rebuttable presumption in favour of the person or group that has the largest financial interest in the relief sought and otherwise satisfies the class action rule. The lead plaintiff selects and retains counsel, subject to the court's approval.

The section also requires the complaint to specify each statement alleged to have been misleading and the reasons why, and to state with particularity facts giving rise to a strong inference that the defendant acted with the required state of mind. All discovery is stayed while a motion to dismiss is pending, unless the court finds that particularized discovery is necessary to preserve evidence or to prevent undue prejudice. Damages are capped by reference to the mean trading price over the 90 days after the corrective information is disseminated, and the section creates a safe harbor for forward-looking statements accompanied by meaningful cautionary language.

What do the docket fields mean?

OQRO reads federal dockets from CourtListener, a free archive run by the Free Law Project that collects the federal courts' docket data. A docket record carries the case name as captioned, the court (for example District Court, S.D. New York), the docket number, the date filed, the date terminated when the court has closed the case, the nature of suit code the plaintiff chose on the civil cover sheet (securities, commodities and exchange cases carry their own code), and the cause, which is the statute cited. A terminated docket is one the court closed; the record does not say whether it closed by dismissal, settlement or judgment. Several complaints about the same statements are often consolidated into one docket, so one case can stand for many filings.

Where does OQRO show the cases?

The securities lawsuits page lists federal securities cases naming a listed company, newest first, with the court, whether the plaintiff is the SEC or private, and whether the docket is open or closed, each linked to the CourtListener docket, with a chart of cases filed per month. A company page carries its own cases, and an insider's trade can show a recently filed case as context, next to the question such a trade raises, which our article on executive sales before bad news describes.

What this does not tell you

A complaint is a set of allegations. A filed case says nothing about its merits, and many securities class actions are dismissed at the pleading stage or settled without any admission. The docket does not show the class period, the claimed losses or the settlement amount; those are in the filings themselves. Cases in state courts, arbitrations and derivative suits brought in the company's name are different records. OQRO shows the record as published; it does not interpret it, and nothing here is investment advice.