Banking Misconduct Blog

State Farm claims to be the nation’s number one insurer. According to its website, the company promises to deliver the value customer’s expect from the industry’s leader. Evidently, that bar is quite low. In 1999, a trial court ruled against State Farm and ordered the insurance...

We love it when a jury hits a major financial giant punitive damages. It doesn’t happen often but that is because most banks and lenders would rather settle before going before a jury. Keeping the case alive long enough to get them to the jury is the trick.
Bank of America took just one...

Here is a dirty trick sometimes used by banks; manipulate the value of collateral to force a default, obtain more collateral or both. In many commercial loans, lenders require a borrower to maintain a certain value of collateral to secure their loan. Sometimes an unscrupulous bank will artificially...

"The industry looks at the Wells Fargo disaster as a speed bump in its effort to declaw the CFPB instead of as one more wake-up call. That says all that America needs to know. Banking joins Big Tobacco and Big Sugar in the pantheon of weasels." American Banker – Quote of the Week. September...

Want to cause a banker to shudder with fear? Mention the word RICO. Short for the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, RICO is one of the most potent weapons against corrupt banks and bankers. A recent lawsuit against PNC Bank alleging the bank violated truth in lending and...

[Note: We don’t handle foreclosure or consumer issues unless part of national class action. That means we can’t represent you on an individual foreclosure matter but we do understand the issues and have suggestions to offer… suggestions that go well beyond the general fluff pieces you often read that offer such advice as “gather all your paperwork…”

We are publishing this piece as general information. The laws in every state are different, especially when it comes to residential foreclosures. We urge you to contact a local lawyer for help. Knowing that finding someone good is often a challenge, especially when funds are tight, we offer some specific suggestions below.

Thank you and God Bless.]

Before we get to the specific guerrilla tactics, there are some general things you should consider. Much of this is what you typically find on the Internet.

1. Find a Good Lawyer

Most foreclosure defense lawyers are glorified bankruptcy lawyers. That is not an indictment of the bankruptcy bar or the lawyers that practice foreclosure defense. There is a time and place for bankruptcy. We often work closely with bankruptcy lawyers and sometimes they are the only folks who can save your home. [break]

If...

Foreclosure disrupts lives and families. Credit is ruined, families often split and years of hard work is lost with just one rap of a gavel. Beyond the dollars and cents, there is another cost of foreclosure, the loss of one’s physical and emotional health. Some folks rebound quickly while...

In a previous post, we discussed the difficulty in bringing claims for fiduciary duty against lenders. Despite popular opinion, the normal lender – borrower relationship does not create a fiduciary duty on the bank’s part in most states. There are many exceptions to the rule meaning...

“Can I sue my bank for breach of fiduciary duty” is a question we often hear. Many folks are quite surprised when they receive our answer. As a general rule, in most states banks do not owe a fiduciary duty to customers. There are exceptions, however.
There is a popular...

Lender’s frequently obtain confidential information from customers. Anyone who has ever completed a loan application or sought commercial financing knows how much data banks want… assets, profit projections, valuations, trade secrets, key personnel, even information about intimate...