The city noted as well that in the 60 cases in litigation this year, the total assets of the couples averaged $533,000.
"Rather than remaining tied up in costly litigation, this agreement secures billions in long-term savings which will allow the city to restore and expand services in a sustainable way," he said.
While such an approach is sometimes used in commercial litigation, this is a first for consumer cases, said Lester Brickman, a professor at Cardozo Law School in New York.
"At this stage in the litigation, this is not even a close call," wrote Judge Roger Vinson of Federal District Court in Pensacola, Fla., before asserting that the insurance mandate was an unprecedented exercise of Congressional authority.
And by reason of -- well, I take it to be your earlier position in the litigation, this period has been truncated by 19 days, causing the time frame of which we're all so conscious, making it difficult for appellate review.
But according to Peter Kirsch, an attorney with the Denver, Colorado based firm Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell who has represented plaintiffs in noise litigation, this responsibility conflicts with one of the FAA's main purposes, which is to promote the growth of the aviation industry.
What this means is that there is enough here for the banks to fight in litigation to kill this deal.
"If you get to the point where you can't resolve this, in litigation or through a collective agreement, I guess you would have to give some serious consideration to turning the program over to some outside agency, whether the Olympic drug-testing people," Jeff Pash, the N.F.L.'s chief labor counsel, said in a telephone interview.
The court shall award costs and attorney's fees to a prevailing plaintiff in litigation filed pursuant to this subsection or subsection (f).
Aside from potentially losing money and time in long-term litigation, this can negatively impact branding and credibility.
If nothing else, a Countrywide bankruptcy would tie this up in litigation for years if not a decades.
