Friday, January 07, 2011

Ex-Ohio AG Files Class Action Suit Alleging Lenders' Law Firm Files Frivilous Foreclosures

In Cleveland, Ohio, WKYC-TV Channel 3 reports:
  • Ohio's former embattled attorney general Marc Dann is taking on his first high-profile lawsuit since a sexual harassment scandal forced him to resign from the job in 2008. Dann and co-counsel James Douglass Tuesday filed a class-action lawsuit against a law firm he says files frivolous foreclosures.

  • The lawsuit filed in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court claims the debt collection firm-- Lerner, Sampson and Rothfuss -- doesn't have the right to file foreclosures and has created incorrect documentation.(1)

For more, see Ex-AG Dann sues law firm regarding their foreclosure process.

For the lawsuit, see Turner, et al. v. Lerner, Sampson & Rothfuss.

See also attorney Marc Dann's press release: Lawyers for Foreclosing Banks Should be Held Accountable for Telling the Truth:

  • The suit alleges that filing lawsuits on behalf of banks and investors who do not actually hold the notes or mortgages that are the subject of the lawsuit is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act and constitutes abuse of process. We have also alleged that Lerner Sampson and its staff members created and signed assignments, endorsements and affidavits without having actual knowledge of the facts contained in those documents.

Thanks to deontos.is for the heads up on the story.

(1) According to Dann's press release, the Cuyahoga County County Common Pleas Judges have recently enacted much stricter requirements for proof when lawyers like Lerner Sampson are seeking a judgment in a foreclosure case (Cuyahoga County Affidavit Policy, Attorney Affidavit Forms).