In his opinion explaining a March dismissal of claims against Moody's and Standard & Poor's, the Manhattan federal district court judge concluded the rating agencies are simply not underwriters, no matter how creatively plaintiffs argue that they are.

Turns out that you don't need to claim First Amendement protection for statements you didn't make.

In the wake of the financial crisis, Moody's, Fitch, and S&P have managed to handily defeat nearly all investor claims over AAA rated securities-gone-bad. But it's a different story if investors have evidence that the ratings agencies collaborated with banks to create risky financial products and tailored their ratings to seduce investors.

Despite some recent defense setbacks, the credit ratings agencies are still proving to be tough litigation targets for investors that placed losing bets on mortgage-backed securities.

Did Moody's, Fitch, and Standard & Poor's really need to hire a small army of high-priced lawyers to go up against a pair of California bond investors who filed a pro se complaint?

Manhattan federal district court judge Harold Baer appeared sympathetic to the claims against the ratings agencies, but explained that he was bound by existing law to dismiss those claims.

Investor lawsuits against the credit rating agencies have, for the most part, failed to gain traction with judges in the wake of the financial crisis. But plaintiffs lawyers at Robbins Geller have bucked that trend before U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin in litigation over a pair of failed structured investment vehicles.

The graveyard of auction-rate securities claims against Merrill Lynch got a bit more crowded this week, with two decisions in the space of two days dismissing suits by ARS investors. And judging by an appellate ruling that Foley & Lardner won Tuesday in one of the cases, most Merrill ARS claims are going to stay buried for good.

It's been an eventful couple of weeks for plaintiffs lawyers at Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd who are targeting Morgan Stanley and the three big ratings companies in a pair of coordinated suits in New York.