Ernst & Young LLP may be sued for fraud as early as today by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for allegedly helping Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. mislead investors, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Cuomo will be sworn in as governor on Jan. 1. The suit would relate to Ernst & Young’s audits of Lehman financial statements aimed at downplaying its liabilities, said the person, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the case. The fraud suit would be brought under the state’s Martin Act, said the person, adding that a settlement is possible.

Richard Bamberger, a spokesman for Cuomo’s office, declined to comment. Charles Perkins, a spokesman for Ernst & Young, declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal said earlier today a lawsuit might be filed this week.

Lehman, once the fourth-largest investment bank, failed in September 2008 because of risky real estate bets and too much debt including Repo 105 trades, which it tried to hide from investors, according to bankruptcy examiner Anton Valukas’s report. Valukas, in the report, said Ernst & Young could be accused of “professional malpractice” for its role as auditor.

Repo 105 transactions are a form of short-term financing that Valukas said Lehman used to move as much as $50 billion off its balance sheet temporarily to show investors it wasn’t carrying too much debt.

It's the most significant new tax law in a decade, but what does it mean for you? Big savings for millions of taxpayers, more if you have young children or attend college, a lot more if you're wealthy.

The package, being signed Friday by President Barack Obama, will save taxpayers, on average, nearly $3,000 next year.

But many families will be able to save much more by taking advantage of tax breaks for being married, having children, paying for child care, going to college or investing in securities. There are even tax breaks for paying local sales taxes and using mass transit, and a new Social Security tax cut for nearly every worker who earns a wage.

Most of the tax cuts have been around since early in the decade. The new law will prevent them from expiring Jan. 1. Others are new, such as the decrease in the Social Security payroll tax. Altogether, they provide a thick menu of opportunities for families at every income level.

"The tax code wants to encourage people to invest in their homes, invest in their education, invest in their retirement, and you have to know about all of these in order to take advantage of it," said Kathy Pickering, executive director of The Tax Institute at H&R Block.

A Florida court has upheld a $28.3 million verdict against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in a lawsuit filed by the family of a deceased smoker.

The 1st District Court of Appeal's ruling Tuesday marked the first decision on an appeal in thousands of smoker lawsuits being tried across the state. The court sided with the family of Pensacola smoker Benny Martin, who died of lung cancer in 1995.

The appeals judges disagreed with the tobacco company's claims that damages were excessive.

About 8,000 similar lawsuits are being tried individually after the state Supreme Court in 2006 threw out a $145 billion class-action damage award for smokers. That decision also concluded that cigarette makers knowingly sold dangerous and defective products.

Israeli mobile phone company Cellcom Israel Ltd. said Thursday that it has received two class-action lawsuits seeking NIS 61 millions ($16.6 million) and NIS 25 millions, respectively. The company did not have a comment about the lawsuits chances of success.

Also on Thursday, the company acknowledged that its network suffered an outage Wednesday. To make amends, it will refund all of its subscribers' calls and text messages for the past week, a concession that the company says will negatively affect its results for the current quarter.

Shares of Cellcom rose 53 cents to $34.18 in afternoon trading.

The service sector expanded for the 11th straight month in November and at the fastest pace in six months.

Friday's report from the Institute for Supply Management, a private trade group, follows a string of other indicators this week indicating the economy is steadily improving. But the Labor Department issued a disappointing jobs report Friday that showed the expansion didn't boost hiring in November. The unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent last month, as job creation slowed.

The ISM said that its service sector index, which covers 80 percent of the economy, rose to 55 last month from 54.3 in October. It was the highest reading since May. Any figure over 50 indicates growth.

"Economic activity is still moving along, but uncertainty and a lack of clarity over the economy and over regulatory issues continue to impede hiring," said Jennifer Lee, an economist at BMO Capital Markets.

Some economists were mildly encouraged by the ISM's index of new orders, which rose by one point to 57.7, and its employment index, which moved to a three-year high of 52.7.

Those are more forward-looking indicators than the employment report, said Brian Levitt, an economist at OppenheimerFunds. They signal that hiring and growth will likely improve in the coming months.

Still, the ISM's report on the service sector is consistent with annual economic growth of about 3 percent, economists said. That's weak for a recovery after such a steep recession, and not enough to rapidly reduce unemployment.