Sarbanes-Oxley passes final test

Most investors think Sarbanes-Oxley regulations have been the rule of the road in corporate governance since put into law in 2002. That has never quite been true. The law has been challenged in the courts for almost six years, accused of giving the federal government too much power to push public companies around.

What appears to be the final challenge to Sarbanes came to an end as a federal appeals court turned back a legal challenge to the act.

According to The Washington Post, "Businesses have protested that the act imposed costly burdens and provided too little benefit." The cost issue is entirely true, especially for small public companies that have had to stretch financial resources by spending hundreds of thousand of dollars to meet the requirements of the law.

But, it would be hard to make the case that the average shareholder is not better off with more independent corporate audit committees and accounting firms under pressure to perform flawlessly. A look at the number of companies that have had to restate financials because of errors uncovered and enforced by audit committees is a testament to the benefits of the law. The law has ended the habit of giving large institutions a "look" at company prospects and has taken away many of the disadvantages that individual investors have suffered for decades.

Sarbanes has been expensive, but the alternative would have done the common shareholder a great deal of damage.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.