Brushing aside objections by a group of shareholders, a judge in Phoenix gave final approval on Friday to the full $48.4 million in attorney fees Barrack Rodos had requested late last year as part of a $145 million class settlement.

Accused of giving misleading information to investors, the father-and-son team of Bruce Bent Sr. and Bruce Bent II charge that the SEC drafted its complaint so that they could not access funds under an indemnification agreement.

Lawyers for Teva, Barr, and Mylan convinced a federal judge in New Jersey that the U.S. Supreme Court's June ruling in Pliva v. Mensing doomed the plaintiffs state-law claims that they failed to warn patients about the risks of generic versions of Fosamax.

Judge Mariana Pfaelzer in L.A. put this case--unlike so many subprime-related shareholder suits--on track to settle when she denied Countrywide's motion to dismiss and later certified the class. Now the L.A. Daily Journal reports that Countrywide and top execs have agreed to a $600 million deal.

Los Angeles federal district court judge Mariana Pfaelzer held that Bank of America's 2008 acquisition of Countrywide was a sale of assets and not a de facto merger. A New York State judge last year reached a different conclusion on the same issue.