Peter J. Henning follows issues involving securities law and white-collar crime for DealBook’s White Collar Watch. As Congress works on the final version of the financial regulatory bill, a major change in liability for corporate law firms, accounting firms and investment banks has been inserted into the measure. House members of the conference committee agreed to add a provision offered by Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California, to restore aiding and abetting liability for private securities fraud cases.

The impact of the amendment is significant because it expands the potential defendants in securities fraud class actions to include more than just the company accused of making misstatements or omissions, and these are defendants with deep pockets.

BP said Tuesday it has accelerated its process of approving payments for commercial claims related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, but two Miami law firms representing fisherman said the oil company’s claim forms are flawed.

BP said it approved initial payments toward 90 percent of commercial large-loss claims that have been filed as a result the ongoing oil disaster. The U.K.-based oil giant said it approved payment of 337 checks for a total of $16 million to businesses that have filed claims in excess of $5,000.

This week, the two firms, Grossman Roth, P.A. and Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod LLP, began representing 600 fishermen from the Florida Keys Commercial Fisherman's Association. They warned that BP’s oil spill claim forms are seriously flawed.

“The claim form that BP put on its website is inadequate under the federal Oil Pollution Act,” said Andy Yaffa of Grossman Roth.

A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld the city of Redondo Beach's ordinance allowing for the arrest of day laborers who approach automobiles soliciting work.

A divided three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower-court decision.

The appeals court said the city's ordinance, modeled after a Phoenix law upheld by the same court, was a reasonable response to traffic problems that officials said day laborers soliciting work caused at two city intersections. The 2-1 majority noted that Redondo Beach allowed the day laborers an alternative forum to seek work such as passing out literature on sidewalks and in parking lots.

Judge Sandra Ikuta wrote for the majority that "we conclude that the Redondo Beach ordinance is narrowly tailored to serve Redondo Beach's significant interests in traffic flow and safety."

Three appeals court judges said in an unanimous decision that because Afghanistan is a war zone and that the United States in effect has sovereignty over Guantanamo Bay swing the balance against the detainees.

Unlike Guantanamo Bay, "it is undisputed that Bagram, indeed the entire nation of Afghanistan, remains a theater of war," the judges said in turning aside the requests of a Tunisian and two Yemeni prisoners.

In the case of Guantanamo Bay detainees, who do have the right to challenge their confinement in U.S. courts, the United States has maintained its total control of the Guantanamo Bay facility for over a century, even in the face of a hostile government, the court noted.