Posts on ‘October 29th, 2009’

A Washington federal judge didn’t care for how Bernstein Litowitz Berger and Grossmann presented their allegations in a complaint against various former Washington Mutual officers and directors, underwriters and the auditing firm Deloitte & Touche, describing it as “verbose” and “disorganized.” But she apparently liked the revision. In a decision Tuesday, she allowed most of the claims to move forward and declined to dismiss any of the defendants from the case, finding the amended complaint “cogent and concise.”

The Sedona Conference Cooperation Proclamation asks: Can’t we all just get along? On the theory overzealous e-discovery costs too much and yields too little, the Proclamation aims to curb the knee-jerk, counterproductive aggression sometimes exhibited by counsel in pretrial litigation.

In a huge setback for Countrywide Financial Corp., the 3rd Circuit has revived a national class action brought by homebuyers who accused the lender of a kickback scheme in which buyers were required to purchase mortgage insurance from one of a handful of companies that in turn took out reinsurance policies from one of Countrywide’s wholly owned subsidiaries. A lower court had dismissed the case, finding the buyers could never show they had been “overcharged” and had no right to sue under RESPA’s anti-kickback provisions.

The stakes have gone up. Heller Ehrman’s creditors now want $150 million from former partners, contending in a confidential mediation brief that the firm fraudulently conveyed that much to partners after it had become insolvent. Meanwhile, a group of 89 former Heller partners said in their own confidential brief that they’ve hired John Keker of Keker & Van Nest to represent them if creditors pursue a fraudulent conveyance suit.