San Diego City Attorney To Go After Other Subprime Lenders; Asks 50 Largest Cities To Join In Litigation

Now that the $8.7 million settlement has been reached in the Countrywide subprime mortgage litigation with about a dozen state attorneys general, San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre is considering withdrawing his lawsuit against Countrywide brought on behalf of his city (and not included in the settlement) and has announced that he will be going after a number of other lenders, according to two media reports.

• "[W]e will be filing additional litigation stopping other foreclosures with other subprime lenders by Friday," [Aguirre] said at a Monday morning news conference. "And we will let you know on Friday who those are and what actions that are going to be taken." "What we want to do is make this universal," he said. "We want to stop every foreclosure of a subprime loan in order to provide the time and provide the forum to work those loans out so that they can go from non-perfoming to performing."

Source: San Diego Union Tribune: Aguirre close to suing other subprime lenders.

• [A]guirre said that, in light of the settlement, he would withdraw his city's litigation against Countrywide. The city attorney said he had sent letters to attorneys in the country's 50 largest cities on Monday asking them to join him in a lawsuit against seven to 10 other subprime lenders in hopes of reaching a settlement that mirrors the Countrywide deal. "On a mass basis this is going to be much more effective ... than the wholesale [federal] bailout at the top end," Aguirre said.

Source: The Recorder (reported at Law.com): Countrywide Deal Includes Reworked Mortgages.