Editor’s note: The COURT REPORT is RISMedia’s weekly look at current and upcoming lawsuits, investigations and other legal developments around real estate. Better.com’s restraining order against former CEO denied In a continuation of the legal battle between tech-focused mortgage disruptor Better.com and its recently ousted Founder and CEO Vishal Garg, a restraining order from the…
Less than a month after the same court upheld the National Association of Realtors®’ settlement in the historic Burnett lawsuit, the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has now also upheld the settlements in the Gibson commission lawsuit. The Gibson lawsuit is the main copycat of the Burnett case, originally filed on the same…
U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough has appointed two “special masters”—third parties granted significant authority over witnesses, evidence and testimony—to audit JND Legal Administration’s billing in the Burnett and Gibson commission lawsuits against the National Association of Realtors® (NAR), capping months of scrutiny over the settlement administrator’s finances. The July 27 order names Chris T.…
Editor’s note: The COURT REPORT is RISMedia’s weekly look at current and upcoming lawsuits, investigations and other legal developments around real estate. Judges appear inclined to allow Anywhere copycat settlement to proceed Two federal judges last week denied a series of requests from the Batton plaintiffs—including a motion to intervene in the Tuccori case, a…
Two federal judges this week appeared inclined to let a parallel homebuyer antitrust case against several brokerages move toward settlement, mostly denying plaintiffs who have fought to block or consolidate the competing litigation. The controversy came after Anywhere Real Estate struck a $9.6 million settlement in a copycat case that lawyers in the original and…
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in Kansas City, Missouri, heard oral arguments in the Sitzer-Burnett settlement appeal on Jan. 14, with attorneys representing objectors as well as defendants debating the validity of the settlement amount and its effectiveness in addressing homebuyer claims. Nearly two years after the landmark March 2024 settlement—where the National Association…
A judge has ruled in defendants’ favor over the class certification dispute in the largest homebuying commission case: Batton vs. The National Association of Realtors® (NAR). Judge LaShonda A. Hunt granted a motion by defendants in the case, who include big brokerages along with NAR, ruling that the plaintiffs’ motions for Class Certification “stricken without…
Defendants in the largest homebuying commission case have filed a motion to strike or delay the plaintiffs’ class certification motion, arguing that a binding federal injunction from the Burnett case invalidates roughly 79% of the proposed class—buyers who also sold homes during a particular time period. The defendants, Anywhere, REMAX and Keller Williams, previously settled…