Editor’s note: The COURT REPORT is RISMedia’s weekly look at current and upcoming lawsuits, investigations and other legal developments around real estate.
Deep in the post-settlement era, most real estate professionals are concerned with the fallout of previously mandated policy changes. Even the Federal Reserve—not known for its timeliness—last week weighed in on the National Association of REALTORS®’ settlement. But the potential disruption isn’t over, with cases filed by homebuyers still marching forward, and yet another lawsuit filed against eXp over alleged drug-fueled sexual assaults that carry significant potential impacts against the industry.
Here is the latest from court cases affecting real estate:
Buyer lawsuit delayed over discovery
Plaintiffs in the largest and oldest buy-side commission case, known as Batton—which alleges mostly the same price-fixing and conspiracy put forward by seller-filed cases like Burnett—will be pushed back another two months, likely deep into 2027 based on the complexity of discovery and wrangling over witness depositions.
Plaintiffs last week asked Judge Lashonda Hunt to update the schedule for the long-running case (first filed under a different name all the way back in January of 2021) based on a “large amount of data” for expert witnesses to analyze. Negotiations over depositions with half a dozen big brokerage defendants also pushed back deadlines, plaintiffs wrote in a court filing, noting that only two companies—RE/MAX and Anywhere—opposed the change.
Hunt split the difference, ordering a two-month extension on deadlines. She had previously denied a more extensive effort by plaintiffs to add new claims to the lawsuit.
“Having put forth significant effort and time negotiating for prior discovery to make this litigation more efficient, it would make little sense not to give Plaintiffs the time necessary to actually make meaningful use of that discovery,” they wrote.
With a potential trial unlikely in the next two years, the buyer cases remain a significant threat beyond changes seller class-action lawsuits have precipitated in the industry. While so far, judges in multiple cases have said they do not believe court-ordered rule changes are appropriate, the buyer lawsuits threaten additional billions of dollars in damages, and the potential for more high-profile scrutiny on industry practices.
According to the latest filing, plaintiffs in the case are reviewing 515,000 pages of documents that defendants provided in the seller cases, along with 82 depositions. They are currently serving subpoenas to Zillow and Realtor.com®, along with 37 individual MLSs.
The next significant deadline in the case is in August, when plaintiffs will file their expert witness reports.
eXp hit with another lawsuit alleging sexual assault
Another lawsuit against mega-brokerage eXp was filed last weekend by a woman who is accusing the company of ignoring reports of sexual assault at company events after she was allegedly drugged and abused by a photographer hired by the brokerage.
The lawsuit is an addition to two other lawsuits by women who were also allegedly drugged and raped by top eXp recruiters at events hosted by the brokerage.
The woman, Kirsten Childress, is an eXp agent who claims that she was drugged and assaulted by photographer Nicholas Moore in 2023 during a private event hosted by a vendor during an eXp event. Childress is suing both Moore and eXp, claiming the company was alerted about Moore’s alleged actions by multiple people and chose to keep working with him.
Notably, all this took place after news of the other sexual assault allegations became public, and company leadership, including eXp founder Glenn Sanford, promised to protect women and revamp procedures around complaints.
“eXp failed to follow its Standard Operating Procedures and failed to conduct any investigation as required by its Policies and Procedures,” Childress wrote.
Childress’s allegations were previously reported by the New York Times.
At a hearing today in the other sexual assault case against the company, lawyers for the plaintiffs in that case noted Childress’s lawsuit as potentially adding more impetus to investigate eXp’s complaint procedures as they depose company executives and other witnesses.
Plaintiffs seek to consolidate smaller copy-cat settlements
A handful of smaller cases, including at least two that targeted individual Chicago brokerages and one that includes buyer claims, are moving toward a joint settlement, according to a court filing last week.
In the Maslanka v. Baird & Warner copy-cat commission case, plaintiffs previously had announced a “framework” for a settlement, asking a judge to keep pushing deadlines back in the litigation. Notably, that lawsuit included claims by both sellers and buyers, and any settlement would seemingly be the first in a buyer-filed commission class-action.
Now, plaintiffs say they are seeking to consolidate the case with five other related lawsuits, negotiating with “a number of the defendants in the cases,” without providing further details.
“The Parties are still working cooperatively and require additional time to coordinate these efforts and finalize the settlement,” plaintiffs wrote.
