Everyone knew that the subprime mortgage crisis would lead to a ton of litigation, but few expected it to be this bad. Hundreds of subprime-related suits have been filed already, and by the end of the year the total will almost certainly exceed the number of suits filed during the entire savings and loan crisis.
A new study by Navigant Consulting Inc. offers the most detailed statistical portrait of subprime litigation yet. The Chicago-based firm reports that 448 subprime-related cases had been filed in federal court from Jan. 1, 2007, to March 31, 2008. By comparison, the Resolution Trust Corp., which was created to deal with problems spawned by the savings and loan crisis, handled a total of 559 suits from 1989 to 1995.
