NERA Economic Consulting has a new
report out on class-action lawsuits. They dropped a lot from
2005 to 2006, but jumped back up again in 2007, thanks in part to 38
– count ’em – lawsuits relating to subprime
lending. I asked NERA for the full list, and here
it is. No surprise that the first subprime
class-action suit was filed against New Century, back in February
– but I was interested to see that Moody’s is one of the few
companies with the dubious distinction of having been sued not once but
twice. (S&P’s parent, McGraw-Hill, is on the list once; Fitch,
it seems, has dodged that particular bullet so far.)
Moody’s is not the only big name on the list: Citigroup is there too,
alongside UBS, Washington Mutual, Merrill Lynch, and even Federal Home
Loan Mortgage Corp. Maybe we should add tort lawyers to the