“There is no question,” said Gerald H. Silk, of Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann, that the subprime market has led to an increase in litigation. His New York firm has class actions pending against the subprime lenders Fremont General, Accredited Home Lenders and American Home Mortgage Investment.

Stuart M. Grant of Grant & Eisenhofer, a firm in Wilmington, Del., said, “All you are seeing now is the low-hanging fruit.” His firm has a shareholders’ derivative lawsuit pending against Countrywide Financial, the mortgage giant.

Class-action filings, excluding subprime cases and those stemming from the backdating of stock options, have increased almost 40 percent from 2006. Average settlements have also jumped, to $33.2 million from $22.7 million.

An investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas focused initially on vendor kickbacks and has involved several local elected officials and business leaders, some of whom were involved in overseeing bond-related matters for the city and area school districts. Some of the local officials have pleaded guilty in the case.

The latest El Paso pleadings come as federal officials pursue a yearlong nationwide criminal probe into alleged widespread bid-rigging in the municipal bond industry. Several Wall Street firms that underwrite the deals as well as insurers that handle part of the business have reported receiving subpoenas.

It isn't clear how the El Paso case, which is still open, is related to other parts of the bid-rigging investigation.

Many details of the El Paso case remain under seal. Documents filed in one of the first parts of the case to become public include references to meetings earlier this year at which the Bear Stearns bankers, not identified by name, discuss paying for a personal trip to New York for one local official implicated involved in the case and his wife. The documents also describe local officials' discussions allegedly seeking bribes from another financial firm handling local bond deals, First Southwest Co., of Dallas, in order to keep their county contract. First Southwest was later fired, prosecutors suggest in court papers, for refusing to pay.

Russell Sherman, a Bear Stearns spokesman, said the men are no longer employees, adding, "Bear Stearns is not the subject of the inquiry. We will continue to cooperate with the authorities regarding this matter."

First Southwest CEO Hill A. Feinberg on Friday said the company has been assured that it isn't a target of the El Paso public-corruption investigation. "We remain ready, willing, and able to cooperate with the federal government, if contacted," he said.

The U.S. Justice Department said on Friday it will not appeal the dismissal of its indictment of Norwegian shipping group Stolt-Nielsen in a price fixing case.

Earlier this month, a Pennsylvania court threw out a criminal indictment against the company and two of its executives.

Judge Bruce Kauffman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, who tossed out the indictment, said Stolt-Nielsen had cooperated with the Justice Department to dismantle illegal collusion among three long-haul carriers in exchange for a promised amnesty for prosecution.

Jurors found John White, 54, guilty of second-degree manslaughter in the death of Daniel Cicciaro despite the man's claims that he feared a "lynch mob" had come to attack his family.

The ruling came on the fourth day of deliberations following an emotional three-week trial in which defense attorneys invoked the nation's violent racist past in arguing the shooting was justified.

Jurors also found White guilty of criminal possession of a weapon.

White testified during the trial that he was trying to protect his family in 2006 when he brandished a gun after a group of angry white teenagers turned up at his house late at night to fight his son.

White claimed the gun went off accidentally, killing Cicciaro, 17.

Jurors had asked on Saturday to hear readbacks of testimony from White's wife and son.

A patent infringement lawsuit filed by AT&T against voice-over-IP telephony provider-Vonage has been settled, according to Vonage representatives.

The settlement brings an unusually speedy end to the lawsuit, which was filed by AT&T on Oct. 17. It alleged Vonage wilfully infringed an AT&T patent related to telephone systems that allow people to make VoIP (voice-over-Internet Protocol) calls using standard telephone devices. A breakdown in talks between the two companies over the issue led to the lawsuit, said AT&T at the time.

Less than a month later, on Nov. 7, the two companies said they had tentatively agreed to a settlement. At that time Vonage said it would pay AT&T around US$39 million under the terms of the settlement.

Final terms were not disclosed on Friday when, in a brief statement, Vonage said the dispute had been settled.

Vonage previously settled a patent suit with Verizon Communications for $80 million to $120 million, depending on the results of its appeal of a court ruling on two patents, and with Sprint Nextel for $80 million. As part of the Sprint Nextel deal Vonage agreed to license more than 100 patents covering technology for connecting calls from a traditional phone network to an IP network. The Verizon settlement came after a court found Vonage had infringed upon the carrier's patents.

Attorneys entered not guilty pleas for Brian David Franks, 27; William Thomas Coppock, 23; and Brian Alan Anderson, 22, all of Los Angeles.

They are among five men who have been charged with recklessly causing a Nov. 24 fire that swept through 4,000 acres of Malibu canyon land. Six firefighters were hurt battling the blaze, and 50 homes and 35 other buildings were destroyed.

Dean Allen Lavorante, 19, and Eric Matthew Ullman, 18, face arraignment in February. They and Anderson are free on bail.

The five are charged with recklessly causing a fire with great bodily injury and recklessly causing fire to inhabited structures. They could face more than a decade each in prison if convicted.

Superior Court Judge Michael K. Kellogg, who works in the San Fernando Valley but lives in Malibu, took the unusual step of denying from the bench that his Malibu neighbors had pressured him.

"Nobody's putting pressure on me," he said. "No one ... has come down from Malibu and knocked on my door and said, 'Hey Judge, we know where you live!"

Kellogg scheduled a preliminary hearing for Jan. 7 to determine whether there is enough evidence to hold the three for trial.

After the hearing, defense attorneys said their clients were being scapegoated.

"The Malibu community and the political pressure by the governor and other factors," led to charges being filed, said Andrew Reed Flier, who represents Coppock.

Arson investigators said food wrappers and precut logs led them to determine the blaze started with an illegal campfire in a cave-like depression on state park land in Corral Canyon that was known as a favorite partying spot for young people.

Supermarket operator Safeway Inc. on Thursday said the U.S. Department of Agriculture warned it may have received raw ground beef products that contain salmonella.

The company said it might have received the products between Sept. 19 and Nov. 5 in five states -- Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada and New Mexico.

A specific product, retailer or establishment that is the source of the contamination has not been determined.

No illness has been reported in Hawaii or New Mexico. There has been a case in Idaho that does not have an apparent connection with Safeway, the company said.

The notice does not include fresh ground beef patties.

No Safeway product has tested positive for salmonella. The company said customers who have frozen raw beef products purchased between Sept. 19 and Nov. 5 should throw them away.

Salmonella can cause diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps within 72 hours of consumption. It is usually found in food contaminated with animal feces, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.