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The Diocese of Duluth has been granted an extension to deliver its plan to emerge from bankruptcy protection, WDAZ.com reported on Friday. The Catholic diocese, which has been under chapter 11 protection since December 2015, was scheduled to file a reorganization plan by Friday, but U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel granted a motion to extend that deadline as the diocese continues to seek coverage of sexual abuse claims from its insurers. "Despite the ongoing litigation, the Diocese (remains) optimistic that the parties will reach a consensual plan through the mediation process," attorneys Ford Elsaesser and Phillip Kunkel wrote in the motion. "However, before the parties are able to negotiate a plan of reorganization several legal issues need to be resolved." The diocese, which was hit with a $4.9 million verdict weeks before filing for bankruptcy, is facing a total of 125 abuse claims filed under the Minnesota Child Victims Act.

A bill is working its way through Congress that could have the effect of ending the class action as an American institution, according to a commentary yesterday in the New York Times DealBook blog. The legislation, the Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act, passed the House last week. In February, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Representative Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) the proposed the legislation to “improve access to justice for American consumers.” He pushed it through the committee on a strict party-line vote only six days later, without a hearing, even though it is much longer and more complex than the bill that passed in 2016, according to the commentary. Proponents of bills like the Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act stress the small individual recoveries class actions sometimes generate, the large lawyers’ fees and anecdotes that make lawsuits seem ridiculous, like the famous, though misrepresented lawsuit over McDonald’s coffee. However, if Congress kills the class action, many laws protecting ordinary people will become unenforceable, according to the commentary. Nobody would pay a lawyer to bring most individual cases under our antifraud, product safety, antitrust, civil rights or employment laws, for example.

U.S. coal miner Peabody Energy Corp said on Monday it has agreed to set aside collateral to cover future mine cleanup costs as part of its bankruptcy reorganization plan, ending its controversial use of “self-bonds,” Reuters reported yesterday. For decades the largest U.S. coal companies have used a federal practice known as “self-bonding,” which exempts companies from posting bonds or other securities to cover the cost of returning mined land to its natural state, as required by law. Concerns over how Peabody, the world’s largest private-sector coal miner, would finance about $1 billion in self-bonds when it emerges from bankruptcy protection had led a series of complaints over its reorganization plan. Under a deal announced yesterday, Peabody said that it had arranged for $1.26 billion in third-party bonds and $14.5 million in a state bond pool in Indiana, one of the states where it held self-bonds, to fully satisfy its financing requirements.

A Catholic diocese in Minnesota filed for bankruptcy on Friday, joining more than a dozen other U.S. Catholic districts and religious orders driven to seek protection from creditors by the church's clergy sex abuse scandal, Reuters reported on Friday. The Roman Catholic Diocese of New Ulm, which is southwest of Minneapolis, said that it will use chapter 11 bankruptcy to reorganize its finances and produce a plan to pay creditors. The rural diocese is defending 101 lawsuits involving alleged sex abuse by clergy mostly from the 1950s through the 1970s. Minnesota had lifted the civil statute of limitations for a period of three years ending May 25, 2016, allowing claims from prior decades to be brought. The diocese is the third in Minnesota to file for bankruptcy in recent years over claims of clergy sex abuse.

At least four automakers knew for years that Takata’s airbags were dangerous and could rupture violently but continued to use those airbags in their vehicles to save on costs, lawyers representing victims of the defect asserted in a court document filed yesterday, the New York Times reported. The Justice Department’s criminal investigation into Takata’s rupture-prone airbags has so far painted automakers as unwitting victims duped by a rogue supplier that manipulated safety data to hide a deadly defect, linked to at least 11 deaths and over 100 injuries in the U.S. But the fresh allegations against Ford, Honda, Nissan and Toyota, made as part of a class-action lawsuit in Florida and based on company documents, point to a far deeper involvement by automakers that used Takata’s defective airbags for years. Honda vehemently denied the new allegations on Monday. The three other automakers either declined to comment or said a response would come through legal channels.

Plaintiffs’ lawyers and consumer-rights advocates are trying to derail a Republican bill to rein in class action lawsuits that is headed toward a floor vote in the House, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Opponents are urging lawmakers to halt the bill, which they say would severely limit the ability of citizens to join in lawsuits to fight grievances in court. Republican backers, meanwhile, say that the legislation is long overdue and would curtail lawyer-driven litigation that does little for consumers but benefits attorneys financially. The bill, titled the “Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act of 2017,” is the second attempt by Congress in recent years to restrict class-action lawsuits, which are used to challenge alleged securities fraud, employment discrimination, misleading advertising and other issues. Consumer advocates say such lawsuits have forced companies to pull unsafe drugs and faulty products from shelves, and compensate buyers for goods sold under misleading claims, such as Volkswagen AG’s diesel-engine vehicles. The legislation has moved swiftly since being introduced by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) less than two weeks ago. Last week, it passed out of the House Judiciary Committee untouched and with no hearings held, despite attempts by Democrats to limit its scope. The measure proposes to make alterations to the class action system, including requiring more similarity in the alleged harms of those joining together to sue, and prohibiting anyone from serving as a named plaintiff more than once with the same law firm. Consumer advocates say that these changes would make filing class actions more difficult.