Woman Accuses Mortgage Companies of Predatory Lending

A Texas woman has filed a lawsuit against two mortgage lenders who she claims engaged in predatory lending practices because of her race. According to the lawsuit, Alpha Mortgage USA Inc. and American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc. engaged in a practice known as reverse redlining in which minorities are targeted for poor mortgage terms. The case is believed to be the first of its kind in the state.  Mary Flood, Houston Chronicle  09/04/2008
Read Article: Houston Chronicle     

MORTGAGE CRISIS

IN - Indiana Files Suit vs. Countrywide

"Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter has filed a lawsuit against Countrywide Financial Corp., accusing the mortgage lender of deceptive and misleading practices that led to borrowers obtaining potentially risky and costly loans. Countrywide is a division of Charlotte-based Bank of America Corp. 'A pattern of misleading and questionable practices has emerged from our investigation into home loans,' Carter says. 'These unfair lending practices may have harmed thousands of people and, in turn, negatively affected our communities and neighborhoods throughout the state.' Indiana is the sixth state to file such a suit against Countrywide. State attorneys general in Florida, Illinois, Connecticut, West Virginia and California have filed similar cases that contend California-based Countrywide made risky loans that exposed home buyers to foreclosures. The suits accuse Countrywide of using deceptive practices to make and service loans."

Charlotte Business Journal, 8-25-08
http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2008/08/25/daily6.html?b=1219636800^1690097

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VistaPrint Named in Four Federal Class-Action Lawsuits (8/28/2008)

Four class-action lawsuits have been brought against VistaPrint, a small business marketing company with over 15 million customers worldwide, regarding unauthorized charges of the credit cards and bank accounts of customers who purchased items on the company's U.S. Web site. VistaPrint Limited and its U.S. subsidiary, along with Vertrue Inc. and its subsidiary Adaptive Marketing LLC, were named as defendants in all four cases. VistaPrint revealed on Thursday in a press release that pending cases were filed in New Jersey and Texas, but Counselor has learned that additional class-action suits were filed yesterday in both Massachusetts and Alabama.

Citibank Settles Accusations of Bilking Customers

Citibank Inc. has agreed to pay $18 million to settle accusations that it surreptitiously moved money from credit card accounts to a company-controlled account without the knowledge of its customers. The deal comes after a sweeping investigation by the California Attorney General’s Office regarding the company’s handling of dormant credit card accounts between 1992 and 2003. The settlement is expected to affect as many as 53,000 cardholders. Cheryl Miller, Law.com 08/27/2008

Read Article: Law.com

Lawsuits Filed In Brain Tumor Cases - Most Popular News Story - KMBC Kansas City

Lawsuits Filed In Brain Tumor Cases - Most Popular News Story - KMBC Kansas City: "awsuits Filed In Brain Tumor Cases
Attorney Files Class-Action Suits On Behalf Of Cameron

POSTED: 6:29 pm CDT August 26, 2008
UPDATED: 6:55 pm CDT August 26, 2008
[NEWSVINE: Lawsuits Filed In Brain Tumor Cases] [DELICIOUS: Lawsuits Filed In Brain Tumor Cases] [DIGG: Lawsuits Filed In Brain Tumor Cases] [FACEBOOK: Lawsuits Filed In Brain Tumor Cases] [REDDIT: Lawsuits Filed In Brain Tumor Cases] [RSS] [PRINT: Lawsuits Filed In Brain Tumor Cases] [EMAIL: Lawsuits Filed In Brain Tumor Cases]
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- An attorney has filed two lawsuit on behalf of the people of Cameron, a Missouri town hit by a series of brain tumors.

Testing on environmental samples collected in Cameron revealed the presence of arsenic and lead at the old Rockwood Industries plant, but experts said they can't definitively link that to the tumors.

Attorney Grant L. Davis filed class-action lawsuits naming companies that operated on the sites where chemicals turned up. One lawsuit request medical monitoring.

'The people who are responsible for illegally dumping these materials, they need to come forward and do medical monitoring and help,' Davis told KMBC's Maria Antonia.

Another lawsuit is for property damage. Davis said the value of the property owned by people in Cameron"

Realty Times - Major Federal Crackdown On Realty Fee Kickbacks Underway "In Every State."

Realty Times - Major Federal Crackdown On Realty Fee Kickbacks Underway "In Every State.": "Major Federal Crackdown On Realty Fee Kickbacks Underway 'In Every State.'
by Kenneth R. Harney

The federal government has issued a warning to realty agents, builders, title agencies, mortgage brokers and other industry participants: Get ready for a wave of RESPA crackdowns, and financial penalties that could make your head spin.
Get Your Free Summer SALES Kit NOW!

In remarks last week, the federal government's top Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) investigator, Ivy Jackson, said that a recent $450,000 settlement with Tulsa realty agents and builders is just the tip of the iceberg. Potentially dozens of additional crackdowns are in the wings.

Jackson heads HUD's RESPA enforcement unit, and has unleashed dozens of on-staff and contract investigators -- often ex-FBI, Customs Bureau or financial regulatory agency sleuths -- to break up what she called 'blatant violations' of federal anti-kickback rules among realty agents, title companies, lenders and others nationwide.

'We are doing investigations in every state,' she said, and 'we anticipate a very busy (enforcement) year.' Jackson's office gets hundreds of tips a year about alleged payoff arrangements involving realty agents, brokers, lenders, mortgage brokers, builders and title and escrow agencies every year. The tip"

Troy King on Skip Tucker

Speak Out ... King won't back down

By our readers

06-02-2008

Re "King and Kingpin" (Speak Out, May 25):

Letter writer Skip Tucker (Alabama Voters Against Lawsuit Abuse) is an able mouthpiece for those who pay him — the big pharmaceutical companies. It clearly upsets him that I strive to be an equally effective advocate for those who pay me — the people of Alabama.

Tucker rhetorically asked whether I am switching parties. Let me emphatically answer "no!" I am a Republican because I believe government has a responsibility to protect its citizens. I am a Republican because I believe no one is above the law, no matter how rich or powerful he may be.

And, as a Republican, I will not sit by and allow the single mothers working two jobs in this state in order to buy medicine for their kids to have their burdens increased because greedy corporations took more than their share of our Medicaid dollars.

Tucker and I can agree on one thing — there is a veil of secrecy in Alabama. It is the one behind which those who stole hundreds of millions of dollars from Alabama's most vulnerable citizens acted. A Montgomery County jury saw what occurred behind that veil and responded with a $215 million verdict.

Wrong is wrong, and I will seek to correct it. Alabamians can be sure of this — I will not back down in my pursuit of justice, no matter how often or how loudly Tucker complains.

Troy King
Attorney General
Montgomery

__._,_.___

Poll: Americans Overwhelmingly Dislike Binding Arbitration, South Leads in Disapproval

MONTGOMERY | Americans generally disapprove of mandatory binding arbitration provisions in consumer contracts as an alternative to civil legal proceedings with a judge and jury, a recent national poll found.

“Consumers don’t have a choice when it comes to mandatory binding arbitration and are at the mercy of CEOs and the large corporations who choose the arbitrators,” Bob Prince, president of the Alabama Association for Justice (ALAJ), formerly the Alabama Trial Lawyers Association, said.

The poll, conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates, found that when those polled learned that consumers surrender their right to a jury trial when an arbitration provision is in place, the company picks the arbitrator and that binding arbitration can apply even if someone is seriously injured, 81 percent disapproved of binding arbitration provisions.

Consumers often must sign contracts containing binding arbitration provisions, and these range from cell phone contracts to cable TV service and nursing home care. These contracts state consumers waive their right to trial by jury over a dispute and instead agree to have any disputes settled by an arbitrator (usually chosen by the company).

Across regions, the South tied with the Midwest for the highest rate of disapproval for binding arbitration provisions in the poll.

“Southerners don’t want to sign their right to a jury trial away in favor of arbitration,” Prince said. “Arbitration only works when both sides agree to it voluntarily, and that is not a choice consumers are given with mandatory binding arbitration provisions.”

Real Estate Overcharges: Others Get Rich on Your Money

May 5, 2008. By Gordon Gibb

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Montgomery, AL: You know what they say—look after the pennies, and the dollars will look after themselves. So it stands to reason that unscrupulous agents and officials involved with various real estate transactions are doing quite nicely pocketing extra money from real estate overcharges. Money that is rightfully yours.

There is little doubt that a real estate transaction is a complicated process, and to the average Joe it can be overwhelming. Not so, however, for the various officials and agents we hire to steer us through the process. They do this every day of the week, vs. a handful of times in a lifetime for us. As a result, it's not hard to pull the wool over our eyes.

And it may not even be all that much. A hundred bucks, maybe—or even less. As part of a transaction that encompasses a myriad of calculations and stipulations, and reflects sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in overall value, you could be forgiven for (a not noticing a discrepancy, or b) clueing in to the possibility but 'just letting it go.' Maybe it's $10, maybe $50 or even $100. Given the overwhelming documentation you have to wade through, and the overall price tag, $100 may seem like nothing.

But consider...

It's YOUR money. And SOMEBODY ELSE is profiting handsomely from that money, especially when you consider the number of transactions that occur in any given day. Over the course of a year, somebody is making a handsome profit on real estate overcharges.

Here's how it works: in any real estate transaction, title or mortgage registration, there are various recording fees and other costs that are often estimated, purportedly because it is next to impossible to determine the actual fee. Or so it is claimed, but this is debatable. Nonetheless, a range is established and a recording fee is charged based on an estimate, rounded up, it is alleged, to ensure there are sufficient funds available to pay the necessary fee(s).

Okay, so what happens when that fee is paid, and it comes in less than the amount you were originally charged? Do you get the difference back?

You should.

Take the case of Arthur Boudin; a homebuyer who obtained a residential mortgage with Ameriquest Mortgage Co. ATM Holdings served as the closing agent. At the end of the day, Boudin noted on his statement of settlement that $120 was charged as a recording fee, although actual court fees were only $48. So what happened to the difference? Boudin didn't see it. Rather, ATM allegedly pocketed that $72.

And so the homeowner sued, alleging that the withheld fee amount of $72 represented a violation of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) as an impermissible markup. The US District Court, Southern District of Alabama saw it Boudin's way.

To be sure, $72 is not a lot of money. But principle is at stake, and that $72 spread across thousands of borrowers can add up, and the problem is NOT new. In 1989, for example, a former federal bank auditor blew the whistle on adjustable-rate mortgage overcharging, estimated at more than $8 billion. In 2003, audits found that half of adjustable-rate mortgages reflected errors, which translated to overcharges for homeowners. A year later US Mortgage Reduction estimated those overcharges at $60 billion.

Think those amounts are niggly now?

Public Citizen, the advocacy group founded by Ralph Nader, agrees that real estate transactions are so complicated, and with so many parties involved, it's relatively easy to sneak inflated charges into the mix, resulting in the pocketing the difference. There are legal fees, title search and registration fees, mortgage registration fees, and so on. Given the complexity, one can imagine the temptation for overcharging and bill-padding—even kickbacks, which are done on the backs of the hard-working homeowner, often with finances wire-tight in order to qualify for the mortgage, and to make it all work.

Maybe it's just $72, but that's $72 of YOUR money that you can put towards new curtains, instead of lining the pockets of someone else making thousands, upon thousands of dollars every year, improperly and illegally from well-meaning clients just like you.
Of course you can, and should be forgiven for not knowing all the complexities of a real estate transaction. However, that's what you pay agents for, and your own lack of experience does not give someone with greater expertise the right to take advantage of you.

How can you avoid such a pitfall, or discover that it's happening to you? Ask if the recording charges are indeed estimates, and ask why. Then demand to see the actual recording fee(s) once actuals are established, and compare them with the estimates. At the very least, insist that you are re-imbursed for the difference once actuals are determined, and demand to see the paperwork after the fact.

And if you note a discrepancy that shouldn't be, call them on it, or pursue the matter in court. It might be just a small amount to you, but it can quickly add up to thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even millions of dollars over the long term.

They do it, because they can get away with it. Because we simply allow them to. We either don't know any better, we're hesitant to ask, or we're reluctant to chase a discrepancy when discovered. 'Oh well, it's only a few dollars,' you might say.

Indeed. It's more like millions. Don't give it to them. Bloody well fight back...

[MORE NEWS ARTICLES]

New Consumer Victory

In an important new case VICKI v. BUSBY v. JRHBW REALTY, INC. the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the denial of class certification in an important RESPA (Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act) case. This will be a boon to consumers who are routinely charged junk fees incident to their loan closings. RESPA prohibits the charging of any fee to a consumer incident to a federally related real estate loan unless there are services or goods provided in exchange for the fee. Consumers and practitioners alike should examine settlement documents closely for RESPA violations.
- posted by Earl P. Underwood, Jr. @ 4:34 AM

Important Information for Consumers Facing Foreclosure

Recession Rights Under the Truth-in-Lending Act.

Cancel your mortgage.

http://epunderwood.googlepages.com/resissionunderthetruth-in-lendingact

Ameriquest

Michigan Borrowers Awarded $14 Million in Ameriquest Settlement

Category: Ameriquest Lawsuits

Over $14 million dollars in checks are being mailed to 18, 481 Michigan loan borrowers as part of a settlement with Ameriquest Mortgage, once the nation's largest sub-prime lender.

The payments are part of a $295 million national settlement stemming from a predatory lending lawsuit against them.

Continue reading "Michigan Borrowers Awarded $14 Million in Ameriquest Settlement"