Ohio AG's Servicer Lawsuit Gets Go-Ahead As Court Denies Dismissal Motion; Conduct In Giving Loan Mods Subject To State Consumer Sales Practices Act

From the Office of the Ohio Attorney General:

• Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray’s lawsuit against Barclays Capital Real Estate dba HomEq Servicing, headquartered in New York City, just took a legal step forward with a recent decision by a state court. [Last] week, Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Timothy N. O’Connell overruled the defendant’s motion to dismiss, clearing the way for Cordray’s case to move forward.

• “This ruling takes us one step closer in our overall strategy to hold loan servicers accountable for unfair loan modifications in foreclosure cases,” said Cordray. “For too long, servicers have stood idly by, talking the talk but failing to provide any real solutions to the foreclosure crisis. Ohioans are losing their homes and servicers have aggravated the situation with noncompliance and out-right incompetence.”

• Cordray sued HomeEq last December for multiple violations of Ohio’s Consumer Sales Practices Act (CSPA), including unfair and deceptive business practices. The lawsuit marked the third filed by Cordray against a loan servicer operating in Ohio. Cordray was the first state attorney general to file a lawsuit against a loan servicer for CSPA violations in the wake of the foreclosure crisis.

• [Last] week’s ruling is the first state court decision to hold that mortgage servicers are accountable under the CSPA, serving to create a precedent in this first-of-its-kind legal strategy.

For the Ohio AG press release, see Court Affirms Cordray's Case Against Loan Servicer.

To view the court decision and lawsuit, see State of Ohio v. Barclay's Capital Real Estate Inc. dba HomEq Servicing.