The U.S. Justice Department said on Monday that it recorded more than $3 billion in settlements and judgments in fraud cases against the government in 2011, pushing the total amount covered since January 2009 to $8.7 billion. The bulk of the $3 billion flowed from the whistleblower provision of the False Claims Act.

The Delaware Chancery Court is scheduled to hear arguments Monday over a $428 million fee request by plaintiffs lawyers for their work winning a record $1.26 billion ruling in the Grupo Mexico shareholder derivative suit. Grupo Mexico’s lawyers claim such an award is an “impermissible windfall.”

The ethics scandal involving Scott Storms, the former general counsel of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, just won’t die. On Monday, a grand jury indicted Storms’ former boss for helping Storms set up a new job with Duke Energy while he still worked on Duke cases before the commission.

Despite claims by Medtronic that plaintiffs lawyers in a stock-drop suit had fudged the testimony of 13 confidential witnesses, a federal judge on Monday certified the shareholder class, ruling that it was “premature” to determine whether the plaintiffs had accurately represented witnesses’ testimony.

In a new motion filed Monday in Washington federal court, the cigarette manufacturers suing the Food and Drug Administration over new graphic label requirements hinted that they already have their sights set on the Supreme Court.