Dickie Scruggs, the Mississippi lawyer who represented thousands of policyholders in their Hurricane Katrina coverage litigation against property insurers, was recently sentenced to five years in prison for conspiring to bribe a judge in a Hurricane Katrina case.  In addition, Scruggs was ordered to pay a fine of $250,000. …
Read More Dickie Scruggs Sentenced to Five Years in Prison

The Florida Supreme Court recently granted rehearing and issued a revised opinion in Auto-Owners Ins. Co. v. Pozzi Window Co., No. SC06-779 (Fla. June 12, 2008), six months after issuing its original opinion. …
Read More Florida Supreme Court Issues Revised Opinion In Pozzi: Claim For Repair Or Replacement Of Window That Was Defective Before Installation Is Not Covered By Standard CGL Policy

Several news sources recently reported that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New York’s Eastern District is conducting a criminal investigation into whether two former Credit Suisse brokers lied to investors in auction rate securities (“ARS”) about the nature of those securities.  The probe into the two Credit Suisse brokers is the first known criminal matter stemming from the troubled ARS market. …
Read More Federal Prosecutors Probe Two Credit Suisse Brokers Regarding Auction Rate Securities

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently held that an order denying a party’s motion to dismiss an application for a preliminary injunction was not an immediately appealable decision under the “final order rule,” on the grounds that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear it. 

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Read More Arbitration: Second Circuit Finds That Order Denying Motion to Dismiss Is Not Appealable

In the latest adverse development in  the deepening credit crisis, federal regulators recently seized the assets of IndyMac Bank, a major mortgage lender.   IndyMac held $32.01 billion in assets as of March 31, 2008.  The Office of Thrift Supervision said it transferred IndyMac’s operations to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation because it no longer had confidence that IndyMac could meet its depositors’ demands. 

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Read More Government Shuts Down Mortgage Lender IndyMac: FDIC Takes Over Operations

On July 8, 2008, the SEC announced the results of its investigation of the three major rating agencies, Fitch Ratings Ltd., Moody’s Investor Services Inc. and Standard & Poor’s.  The investigation uncovered “significant weaknesses in ratings practices.” …
Read More SEC Ratings Agency Investigation Finds Serious Problems and Proposes Some Rule Changes

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York recently held that a U.S. court does not have subject matter jurisdiction over a lawsuit in which 90% of the proposed class is made up of foreign investors who purchased the securities at issue on foreign exchanges. 

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Read More New York Federal Court Rejects “Global Fraud-on-the-Market” Presumption

A Florida appellate court recently held that the retroactivity limitation for asbestos lawsuits under the state’s 2005 Asbestos and Silica Compensation Act rendered the entire Act unconstitutional. 

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Read More Florida Appeals Court: 2005 Asbestos and Silica Compensation Act is Unconstitutional