That sideshow regulatory suit a coalition of giant banks brought against the insurance department that approved MBIA's $5 billion restructuring? It just got a lot more interesting.

Yes, you read the headline right. The advocacy groups and others submitted amicus briefs in the banks' appeal of a decision dismissing their fraud suit against MBIA, arguing that the ruling could hurt plaintiffs challenging one-sided state agency decisions.

After inking a settlement with founders of the Fairfield Greenwich Group over more than $1 billion lost in Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at Boies Schiller said the deal "allows us to really focus on the defendants that have a much greater ability to pay."

In fending off the banks' attempt to revive their fraud suit against MBIA at the state's highest court, MBIA enlisted the support of New York's attorney general and accused them of "burdening" the courts with misplaced claims.

With $10 billion and its honor at stake, it's no wonder that JPMorgan Chase and its lawyers at Sullivan & Cromwell are scratching and clawing in the litigation over JPMorgan's fire sale acquisition of Washington Mutual last fall. But a filing last week in Delaware federal bankruptcy court, in which JPMorgan seeks to compel members of an unofficial group of WaMu noteholders to identify themselves, has other folks in the litigation scratching their heads.

The biomedical firm put out a press release touting one of its drugs for a non-FDA approved usage. InterMune signed a deferred prosecution agreement, but the feds still indicted its former CEO for wire fraud and criminal misbranding of a drug. The trial, which features an up-and-coming assistant U.S. attorney against Mark Topel, a fixture of the criminal defense bar, began Tuesday.

Major magazine publishers and distributors have spent years unsuccessfully trying to dodge claims that they conspired to drive the magazine wholesaler Anderson News out of business. Now they want to take the offensive against Anderson with antitrust counterclaims of their own.