When it comes to the abusive mortgage practices that fueled the recent boom-bust, the most ire has been reserved for those wacky, near-Mafioso mortgage companies that cropped up quickly and then died out--firms such as New Century, NovaStar and others. But so far, the big banks that in many ways enabled these firms have escaped legal culpability, arguing they operated independently.

"But this argument is growing tougher to defend," the New York Times notes. It says more cases contend "that firms involved in the securitization process, like trustees hired to oversee the pools of loans backing securities, worked so closely with the lenders that they should face liability as members of a joint venture." Will the courts agree with this line of thinking? Some think they will.

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