Bank of America (BAC) and the SEC have a date in court--one that neither of them wanted. Recall the showdown came about because U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff just couldn't stomach the $33 million settlement of charges related to Bank of America's disclosures of the massive Merrill Lynch bonuses that proved so controversial. The trial is scheduled to start March 1.

The pre-trial skirmishing, however, has already started. Judge Rakoff has already granted an SEC request that media reports cannot be used by the bank's expert witnesses as evidence. According to the AP, Rakoff noted that two of the six experts Bank of America planned to call "relied heavily or exclusively on media reports for their determinations." He ruled the relevance of media reports was vitiated by a proxy statement from the bank that told voting investors to disregard them. This is going to be interesting. 

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