The Justice Department filed a lawsuit late Monday in Los Angeles federal court against Standard & Poor's Corp. The suit accuses the company's analysts of issuing glowing reviews on troubled mortgage securities whose subsequent failure helped cause the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

The action marks the first federal crackdown against a major credit rater, and it signals an untested legal tack after limited success in holding the nation's banks accountable for the part they played in the crisis.

The government selected Los Angeles as the venue to file the lawsuit in part because it was one of the regions hardest hit when the bottom fell out of the housing market. Hundreds of thousands of California residents lost their homes to foreclosure, and others saw their wealth evaporate as properties plummeted in value.

"The DOJ is playing hardball and they're coming at the ratings agency in a very different direction with a potentially very powerful weapon to push S&P to the settlement table," said Jeffrey Manns, a law professor at George Washington University.

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