CURRENT ACCOUNT: Any disgruntled Elan shareholder thinking of joining one of the array of class-action suits lodged against the company by US lawyers might be advised to take note of the recent outcome of a similar action against US group Tyco.

The Tyco class actions date back to December 1999 and followed a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accounting investigation into some of the group's acquisitions during the previous two years. The SEC's informal inquiry ended in 2000 without any action being taken. Tyco, for its part, always complained that its accounting was squeaky-clean.

That did not stop the filing of class-action suits against Tyco alleging improper disclosures and accounting practices. But this week, a US judge threw out the class-action suit against Tyco and said that the allegations were "untimely", "unreasonable", "lacked specifics" and fell "well short of stating a viable securities fraud claim". Tyco shares duly rose.

Of course, the only ones out of pocket in this case are the lawyers behind the class action, as they operated on a no-foal no-fee basis.