The Supreme Court is currently deciding whether accounting firms, investment bankers, lawyers, and others can be sued for corporate failures related to accounting fraud. The outcome of the case will have huge ramifications for former shareholders in companies like Enron, who are pursuing class-action lawsuits to recoup losses from companies affiliated with the former trading giant that imploded in a wave of accounting scandals.

According to The Financial Times, "The business community wants the court to protect US and foreign companies -- along with accountants, lawyers and investment banks -- from a new wave of costly investor lawsuits. What they would regard as the wrong ruling in the case could frighten foreign issuers away from US markets and dissuade overseas groups from doing business with US corporations, business groups say. Investor advocates say that if they lose the case, victims of corporate fraud -- including those who suffered in the Enron debacle -- would find it hard to gain compensation."

It's generally impossible for shareholders to collect money from the companies they lost money investing with -- If the companies were solvent, they wouldn't need to collect money.

The issue to me is that lawyers, accountants, and investment banks are paid huge fees to perform due diligence and, if they fail to detect a fraud, they have failed to do their jobs! If these people can collect such huge fees for doing the work they do, shouldn't it stand to reason that they ought to give some back when they mess up badly?