Judge James Selna created two separate plaintiffs' committees, one for personal injury and wrongful death, the other for economic losses. To lead them, he picked a lot of lawyers from California.

The California lawyer, representing the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, alleges manipulation of this market by more than a dozen major banks, including Bank of America, JPMorgan, and Citigroup.

Toyota has agreed to pay more than $1 billion to settle multi-district litigation over financial losses associated with acceleration problems reported in some Toyota and Lexus vehicles. The Japanese car maker and plaintiffs lawyers filed a copy of their proposed settlement Wednesday in federal court in Orange County, California.

A class of Toyota owners says the cars have lost value since last winter's recall for sudden acceleration, so they deserve damages. Toyota's Alston & Bird lawyers, however, assert plaintiffs can't collect unless there's something wrong with their cars--and most class members can't show any defect.

A federal judge in Brooklyn agreed Thursday to certify classes of direct and indirect purchasers in a set of suits accusing four Chinese manufacturers of joining a cartel to fix prices for vitamin C. The litigation has drawn a rare U.S. court appearance by the Chinese government, which hired Sidley Austin to back the companies' defense.

Most of the world's most powerful private equity firms must face an investor class action alleging that they conspired to drive down buy-out prices for publicly traded companies, a federal judge in Boston ruled Thursday.

Reports that UBS is close to reaching a deal with authorities investigating the alleged manipulation of global interest rates could be good news for private plaintiffs already pursuing LIBOR litigation against UBS and other institutions.