Law360, New York (July 29, 2014, 10:53 AM EDT) -- In the years since the credit crisis, a number of municipalities and counties have filed lawsuits under the Fair Housing Act seeking to recover for alleged discriminatory lending practices by mortgage originators. In recent months, there has been a surge in such filings, with Los Angeles, Miami, Providence, Rhode Island, and Cook County, Illinois, all filing complaints in federal court since December.[1] These suits come on the heels of numerous fair lending settlements with the U.S. Department of Justice, which resolved allegations that lenders engaged in discriminatory lending practices with African-American and Hispanic borrowers.[2] Suits brought by municipalities cite the same alleged discriminatory conduct on the part of defendant lenders, but claim further that, in addition to harming minority borrowers, the discrimination also damaged the municipalities themselves. Courts are in the process of — or have recently completed — evaluating motions to dismiss, with differing results. The ultimate resolution of these actions will help define the FHA's reach and will implicate how mortgage lenders assess litigation risks intrinsic to the mortgage business....