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Cobell Trial Date Set

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by Brad Jolly, Partner

April 30, 2007

On April 20, 2007, the new judge, James Robertson, assigned to the Cobell litigation set trial to begin on October 10, 2007 and "continue as long as necessary." The trial is designed to determine, among other things, whether the Individual Indian Money ("IIM") accounting that the Department of Interior has performed so far has fulfilled, or is fulfilling, the mandates of the Indian Trust Management Reform Act of 1994; whether Interior has "unreasonably delayed" accounting for IIM accounts; and whether "further relief, if any, should be ordered." Since the government has lost or destroyed so many records of the IIM accounts, the government may not be able to show an accounting for each IIM account. Interior has attempted to use statistical sampling to substitute for an actual accounting, which the plaintiffs object to, but Judge Robertson noted that Interior's accounting obligations are "unresolved," including "the question of whether statistical sampling will satisfy fiduciary standards." The first pre-hearing conference is scheduled for May 9, 2007.

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