Another consequence for those investors who fail to file claims in securities class action settlements is that, increasingly, they may miss out on additional millions made available through SEC settlements.  Take the recent announcement by the SEC concerning it's $25 million settlement in May 2004 with Lucent, for example.  The SEC stated in this Litigation Release on February 4 that it has filed a motion seeking to have this $25 million transferred to the account established by the claims administrator in the securities class action settlement involving Lucent (In Re Lucent Technologies Inc. Securities Litigation, Case No. 00CV-621(JAP)).  The SEC has proposed that the claims administrator will then distribute the funds to the class members who have already filed claims in that settlement (the claims deadline in that case was March 2004).

The result appears to be that investors who failed to file claims in the Lucent securities class action settlement will suffer the additional consequence of missing out on their share of another $25 million made available by the SEC.