Baltimore, St. Paul Among At Least 18 Cities Forming Litigation Work Group To Hammer Mortgage Lenders Over Vacant & Abandoned Foreclosures

In Baltimore, Maryland, The Maryland Daily Record reports:

• Baltimore’s law department is partnering with 18 cities across the country to use litigation to address the foreclosure crisis. City Solicitor George A. Nilson spoke Monday afternoon in support of a City Council resolution that was to have been introduced at Monday evening’s meeting that establishes a “Multi-City Litigation Work Group on Foreclosures” and would include officials from Chicago, Atlanta, Memphis and other cities.

• “The purpose and the importance of it is to do, at the city or municipal level, what has been done at the state level, and that is to deal with common problems of consequence in a coordinated manner rather than in an ad hoc manner,” Nilson said.

• The idea for the work group came from officials in St. Paul, Minn., who are considering litigation against the six major lenders that own the most vacant property in that city, including Wells Fargo, USBank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Chase.

For this story, see City joins 18 jurisdictions across U.S. in fighting foreclosures.

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In St. Paul, Minnesota, the Pioneer Press reports:

• St. Paul is helping to create a national working group of city attorneys who are trying to hold lenders accountable for the accumulation of vacant and foreclosed-on homes in urban areas.

• The idea is for the chief legal officers — some of whom have filed lawsuits against lenders — to share information and coordinate legal strategies that might decrease foreclosures and vacancies. A City Council resolution of support for St. Paul's participation in the working group is expected to be introduced this week.

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• John Choi, the city attorney in St. Paul, has been appointed to co-chair the working group along with his counterpart in Baltimore, and city officials expect other municipalities to announce their involvement in the coming weeks.

For this story, see St. Paul / City goal to curtail vacant properties (National group to seek solutions).

See also, Minnesota Lawyer: St. Paul announces the launch of multi-city foreclosure litigation initiative.