Securities Litigation Forecast: Will Trends in RMBS Litigation Influence the CMBS Litigation Trajectory?

In recent years, U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities (“RMBS”) litigation has captured the attention of securities lawyers. More recently, lawsuits involving commercial mortgage-backed securities (“CMBS”) are beginning to be filed. Despite the similarities in name of RMBS and CMBS, publications addressing key lessons to be drawn from RMBS cases and applied to the growing line of CMBS cases are scarce. As described below, developments in RMBS litigation may impact future CMBS litigation, and securities lawyers involved in high-stakes CMBS litigation will benefit from understanding significant RMBS cases that may shape, in similar or dissimilar fashion, the CMBS legal landscape.