With the recent settlement of the securities class action litigation involving alleged options backdating at HCC Insurance Holdings, we decided to take a quick look back at our list to see what was happening with these cases.

Of the 36 cases, 3 have been dismissed and 7 have settled.

The seven settlements total $244.55 million, for an average of just under $35 million. Removing the Mercury Interactive Corp. settlement, which represents nearly half of the total settlements, drops the average to a still respectable $21.18 million.

Of particular interest, these cases have settled much more quickly on average, than other cases. The seven cases have settled in an average of just 509 days. Again removing the outlier, Mercury Interactive, which was filed earlier and added the options backdating allegations in a later amended complaint, drops the average time from filing of initial complaint to tentative settlement for the remaining 6 cases to 463 days.

And the ratio of settlements to dismissals is somewhat out of line with historical averages as well. Most studies (and a quick check of our database) indicate that the percentage of new securities class actions that are dismissed is between 33-40 percent.

In these cases, we can look at the data two ways. Dismissals as a percentage of total cases or dismissals as a percentage of cases that have reached a final, or quasi-final resolution.

Under the former analysis, just over 8% of these cases have been dismissed. That number is artificially low, as not all of the cases have yet had a ruling on the motion to dismiss.

Under the latter method, 30% of these cases have been dismissed. This number is artificially high, as a number of these cases have already survived a motion to dismiss.

For a running update on the derivative options backdating cases, refer to Kevin LaCroix's master list here, and his list of dismissal and settlements, here.

UPDATE: The D&O Diary has an in depth post on the options backdating litigation, here.