Escaping Lawsuits by the skin of their teeth as Big Banks slide by
Escaping Lawsuits by the skin of their teeth as Big Banks slide by
We all have heard of the foreclosure "robo-signing" mess, and as the 50 state investigations continues, homeowners across the country are diving in filing lawsuits. The problem with this and why the banks have thus far avoided national class action lawsuits is partial because most home owners are behind, and cannot demonstrate economic harm according to some of the plaintiff lawyers.
There of course have been several large plaintiff law firms hovering around the banks, once the news broke of the possible problems with foreclosure affidavits but largely these big law firms have not dove into the mess due to borrowers not having valid causes to sue.
Banks have disclosed some legal challenges from homeowners, but the class action lawsuits they are facing have not been national in scope. For instance in the state of Indiana Bank of America has echoed the conclusion reached by some plaintiff lawyers in arguing that the borrower cannot show harm because they would have lost their home anyway.
However, with all the hype about the banks miss handling of affidavits to speed up the foreclosure process not all plaintiff lawyers have walked away yet. Pearson, Simon, Warshaw & Penny, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein's Eric Fastiff and Andrew Friedman of Cohen Milstein are some of the few law firms that may still file, are still investigating or believe some homeowners have been violated. It takes time and research to investigate a matter like this.
There are still some major hills to climb and getting a judge to certify a national class action lawsuit is not an easy task. One of the reason's being is because homeowners have different and varying circumstances in terms of their relationships with their servicers.