Advisen said the high percentage of Madoff cases might mean 2009 will simply end up with a "heavy front-end load of lawsuits."

Unlike other trackers of securities litigation data, Advisen does not just count up securities class actions in its quarterly reports. Instead, Advisen's totals include:

o Securities class actions, representing 67 of the 169 first-quarter 2009 filings.

o Securities fraud actions, which largely are the result of regulatory actions, such as lawsuits or proceedings by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which totaled 34 in the quarter.

o Securities cases alleging breaches of fiduciary duty, accounting for 26 first-quarter filings.

o Derivative actions, which are brought by shareholders on behalf of the company, naming directors and officers as defendants, accounting for 14 of the 169 first-quarter filings.

o Collective actions, similar to U.S. class actions but brought in non-U.S. courts against U.S. and non-U.S. companies, totaled 20.

The inclusion of suit categories other than class actions explains why Advisen's 2008 total of 490 appears to be out of line with more typical figures reported by other research organizations, which publish numbers in the 210-225 range. Advisen reported 218 securities class actions as just one part of its 490-case total for last year.

Reviewing the distribution of cases among the categories, Advisen said that class actions have been shrinking as a percentage of the total, now representing less than 40 percent of securities tracked in MSCAd–down from 44 percent for all of 2008.

The report also tracks dollars paid in settlements and judgments in the quarter, finding that the overall settlement/award value was $27.9 million.

While Advisen said this was in line with prior years, awards and settlements for securities class actions only averaged $12.1 million in the quarter in which securities fraud case awards soared to a $43.4 million average–the highest of any category and much higher than amounts recorded in recent years, which typically average $5 million.

Advisen's report notes that although securities cases have traditionally triggered coverage under D&O policies, recent securities cases may also trigger coverage under errors & omissions and fiduciary liability policies.

Noting that cases dealing with subprime/credit issues represented 26 percent of the first-quarter cases, Advisen found that suits related to subprime/credit crisis issues and Ponzi schemes deal with professional judgment and fiduciary duties, which may be excluded under D&O policies but covered under E&O policies.

Fiduciary liability suits alleging violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974–the claim in many Ponzi scheme cases–may trigger fiduciary liability policy coverage, Advisen said.

Tallying up all the Madoff-related cases so far, Advisen said that since the Madoff fraud was disclosed on Dec. 11, 2008, securities filings totaled 82 suits, with 50 in first-quarter 2009.