Ohio Woman Gets Help From Non Profit Law Firm In Saving Home From Foreclosure, Filing Suit Alleging Loan Modification, "Rescue" Scam

In Hamilton, Ohio, the Middletown Journal reports:

• A Middletown woman filed suit Thursday, July 9, in Butler County Common Pleas Court against two Cincinnati-based companies and a Kentucky attorney alleging a foreclosure rescue scam, according to the Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio. The lawsuit alleges the defendants were running a scam that promised to save Marsha Fuller’s home but did little or nothing in exchange for the $1,200 fee. Foreclosure Assistance USA and a related company, American Foreclosure Professionals(1) preys upon homeowners desperate to save their homes from foreclosure, according to the complaint filed in court.

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• The company did hire an attorney to represent Fuller, but she alleges that attorney failed to independently investigate the case and instead relied on information received from Foreclosure USA, according to a news release from the Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio. When the attorney discovered the Ohio Attorney General’s Office sued both companies for running a deceptive business, he withdrew from the case and left Fuller without an attorney to respond to the lender’s motion for a foreclosure judgment, according to the complaint.(2)(3)

Source: Woman files suit in foreclosure rescue scam.

(1) For more on the Ohio AG's civil suit against these operators, see Foreclosure Rescue Companies Sued for Deceptive Practices.

(2) Reportedly, the homeowner received assistance from legal aid, which negotiated a loan modification and saved her home from foreclosure.

(3) Three relatively recent rulings of the Ohio Supreme Court illustrate how attorneys who allow themselves to be "pimped out" by upfront fee loan modification firms and foreclosure rescue operators can find themselves in hot water. For more, see Attorneys Incur License Suspensions For Fee Sharing, Other Violations In Arrangement With Loan Modification, Foreclosure Rescue Operator.