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Troubles Mount for Ocwen in Maryland and Around the Country Due to Mounting Regulatory Actions and Private Lawsuits, and Ocwen Stock Plummets

Ocwen, which has an outsized presence in Maryland and which is the largest subprime mortgage servicer in the United States, has settled allegations by New York’s financial regulator, but still faces trouble in California. It is also in serious financial trouble: its stock closed at $7.71 on January 21, which is down from $16.01 a month ago, and down from $49.13 a year ago.

The Problem

As his press release explains, New York’s Benjamin Lawsky, the Superintendent of Financial Services, alleged that Ocwen had a “serious conflict of interests” and had engaged in a variety of servicing misconduct including

(a) robo-signing, (b) inaccurate affidavits and failure to properly validate document execution processes, (c) missing documentation, (d) wrongful foreclosure, (e) failure to properly maintain books and records, and (f) initiation of foreclosure actions without proper legal standing.

Read More »Troubles Mount for Ocwen in Maryland and Around the Country Due to Mounting Regulatory Actions and Private Lawsuits, and Ocwen Stock Plummets

Ocwen Servicing Abuses in Maryland and Elsewhere: Foreclosures Spark Lawsky Investigation and Lawsuits

Ocwen is a mortgage servicing company: it’s paid to collect payments from consumers in Maryland and elsewhere, deal with escrow accounts, and sort out any problems that arise. Servicers do not necessarily own the mortgage itself, only the “servicing rights”. The CFPB’s guidance for examining mortgage servicers explains “[t]his is because some entities have expertise in payment processing and other servicing responsibilities, while others seek to invest in the underlying mortgages.” Mortgage servicers are supposed to help the mortgage repayment process run smoothly and to deal with problems – such as mistakes in escrow or missed payments. According to Ocwen’s slogan “Helping homeowners is what we do!”

Homeowners Sue

However, lawsuits filed in Maryland and around the country accuse Ocwen of everything from blatant fraud to utter incompetence, all to the detriment of the homeowners it claims to be helping. A lawsuit filed in Florida recently accuses Ocwen of needlessly forcing homeowners into foreclosure by turning minor problems into major ones. NPR reports the story of one couple who were charged massive fees after an error regarding property taxes:

Read More »Ocwen Servicing Abuses in Maryland and Elsewhere: Foreclosures Spark Lawsky Investigation and Lawsuits

maryland debt relief

Maryland Debt Relief & Disparity: Credit Card Debt in Maryland

Maryland debt relief programs won’t do or mean anything without truly understanding the intersectional issues that arise when speaking about debt disparity in the state.

Policymakers in Maryland and elsewhere should read “The Debt Disparity: What Drives Credit Card Debt in America”, released in the Fall of 2014 by the think tank Demos (www.demos.org).

Demos conducted a survey of nearly 2000 consumers to discover how consumers with outstanding credit card debt differ from those with no credit card debt.

The study found that those with credit card debt are more likely to have no college degree, no health insurance, to have experienced recent unemployment and to be underwater on their mortgages. They are also more likely to have children.

Here are some more details of the results:

Read More »Maryland Debt Relief & Disparity: Credit Card Debt in Maryland

Why and How Arbitration Constitutes the “Strip Mining of Legal Rights”

When it comes to consumer or employment contracts, forced arbitration is a problem in Maryland, and throughout the country.

In their April, 2014 article titled “The Strip Mining of Legal Rights” Ralph Nader and Theresa Amato call for limits on the use of fine-print terms to undermine legal rights. They call the use of fine print to avoid liability an “expanding coup d’etat against the civil justice system” and suggest action by Congress and federal agencies to control the use of forced arbitration clauses and establish model contract terms which are fair to both consumers and businesses.

Read More »Why and How Arbitration Constitutes the “Strip Mining of Legal Rights”

How Forced Arbitration in Boilerplate Contracts Strips Away Consumer Rights

Fine print boilerplate is everywhere, but what can be done to stop it? Theresa Amato writes in The Nation that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau should take four steps to promote fairness in consumer contracts:

  1. Prohibit forced arbitration clauses in consumer contracts
  2. Maintain a searchable database of all standard form contracts used by the industries it regulates
  3. Develop its own “consumer-road-tested contracts” and prohibit certain terms, such as those that prohibit public criticism of the business involved, or waive liability for negligence.
  4. Promote a “fair contract” symbol to make it easy to identify contracts which conform to the standards proposed.

Read More »How Forced Arbitration in Boilerplate Contracts Strips Away Consumer Rights

Why and How Forced Arbitration Strips Consumers of Their Right to Sue in Court

In the Summer, 2014 issue of Washington Monthly, Lina Kahn wrote about how arbitration clauses are used by America’s corporations big and small to shield themselves from lawsuits. For example, suing Target over its loss of customer data to hackers:

may seem like an archetypical story of our times, combining corporate misconduct, cyber-crime, and high-stakes litigation. But for those who follow the cutting edge of corporate law, a central part of this saga is almost antiquarian: the part where Target must actually face its accusers in court and the public gets to know what went awry and whether justice gets done.

Read More »Why and How Forced Arbitration Strips Consumers of Their Right to Sue in Court

Debt Collectors’ False Threats of Arrest and Jail in Maryland and elsewhere is a Crime: Multimillion-Dollar Debt Collection Scam That Targeted More Than 6,000 Victims In All 50 States

Abusive debt collectors falsely threatened Maryland and other consumers with arrest and jail. Now the owner of the firm, together with six of his employees, are under arrest for making false threats of arrest to consumers and pretending to work for the federal government. A press release by the FBI and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York makes it clear that the threats were not made by “rogue” employees, but were part of the firm’s policy which had over 6,000 victims in all 50 states:

Read More »Debt Collectors’ False Threats of Arrest and Jail in Maryland and elsewhere is a Crime: Multimillion-Dollar Debt Collection Scam That Targeted More Than 6,000 Victims In All 50 States