This blog has covered the lawsuit against plaintiff’s class action lawyers (Bill Lerach, lawyers Kevin Roddy and Spencer Burkholz, and the Milberg law firm) by Grand Casinos and Lyle Berman previously (here and here). Brief background:  the Milberg law firm hired a damages expert in shareholder class action cases (Torkelson) who accepted money from the […]

U.S. District Court Judge Joan Ericksen (D. Minn.)concluded her 32-page award of summary judgment in defendants’ favor issued today with a literary reference: In light of the relatively small amounts of the three misstatements at issue, and the apparent low risk that Defendants pose to shareholders of U.S. publicly-traded companies, the Court questions whether the […]

U.S. District Court Judge David Doty won’t be deciding Plaintiffs’ motion to certify class against MoneyGram until after a class certification hearing set for Feburary 10, 2010 but the opposition to the motion, below, is of interest on at least a few levels. First, the fact that MoneyGram is contesting class certification at all is […]

Back in March, this blog report that Grand Casinos and well-known Minnesota business man, Lyle Berman, represented by Dorsey & Whitney LLP, are pleading fraud, conspiracy, negligent supervision, and RICO against the prominent plaintiffs securities class action law firm, Milberg Weiss, based, primarily, on the fact that Milberg worked with a damages expert who accepted […]

Securities fraud defendants sue securities fraud plaintiff’s counsel and expert in U.S. District Court, D. Minn. (PACER password required to access link) As those who follow securities fraud class action litigation, a notorious damages expert for the Milberg Weiss law firm, Paul Torkelson, plead guilty to perjury in connection with his bought testimony (undisclosed payments, […]

Lester v. Novastar Financial Corp., 8th Cir. Civ. File No. 8452WM (oral argument, 1/16/09) The Eighth Circuit has upheld the dismissal of several securities fraud class actions over the past two years. How will they react to the dismissal of a fraud claim against a subprime lender? The allegations in the class action plaintiffs complaint […]