"Buried notice." That is the phrase many plaintiffs' securities class action lawyers use to describe the practice of "burying" the notice to class members of a new case required under the PSLRA , i.e., publishing it in a place that it is unlikely (or at least less likely) to be seen by class members.

The PSLRA requires that

"Not later than 20 days after the date on which the complaint is filed, the plaintiff or plaintiffs shall cause to be published, in a widely circulated national business-oriented publication or wire service, a notice advising members of the purported plaintiff class---

I. of the pendency of the action, the claims asserted therein, and the purported class period; and

II. that, not later than 60 days after the date on which the notice is published, any member of the purported class may move the court to serve as lead plaintiff of the purported class.  (Emphasis added).

Although the PSLRA provides this choice in the method of providing notice, in practice nearly all law firms today publish notice of a new case by issuing a press release over a national business wire such as PR Newswire or Business Wire. There are numerous reasons why these national wire services have become the de facto industry standard. First, they are less expensive, quicker and simpler than arranging for a notice to be printed in a hard copy publication. Second, such services are publicly available and searchable via internet sources such as Yahoo! and Google, thus offering maximum exposure. Third, it is obviously inefficient and unrealistic to flip through hard copies of random "business-oriented publications" on the hope that you might stumble upon notice of a class action in which you are interested.

Why then do some law firms opt only to publish the required notice in places like the back pages of the print edition of Investors Business Daily? This article by ISS's Ted Allen in the December 2004 SCAS Alert addresses that question.