Brakes Temporarily Slammed On Attorneys Allegedly Peddling Participations In Mass Joinder Foreclosure Relief Suits; One Target Of AG Probe Responds

In Los Angeles, California, The Associated Press reports:

• A Los Angeles judge has issued an injunction prohibiting several lawyers, direct marketers and call center operators from continuing with an alleged nationwide scheme to dupe desperate homeowners into paying thousands of dollars to join dubious lawsuits against big banks.



• Superior Court Judge Louis Meisinger also ruled Tuesday that the assets of foreclosure attorney Philip Kramer, the direct marketing firm Pate, Marier and Associates and other defendants would remain frozen while a receiver retains stewardship over their businesses.



• Orders against another lawyer accused in the civil suit filed in August, Mitchell Stein, are being considered in a separate hearing later this month. Stein filed a series of lawsuits this week in California, Florida and New York(1) accusing California Attorney General Kamala Harris of filing the complaint against him at Bank of America’s behest.



• Prosecutors accuse Kramer, Stein, Pate, Marier and Associates and more than a dozen other individuals and businesses of ensnaring borrowers in a scheme that falsely promised a cut of future legal settlements in lawsuits alleging malfeasance by their banks.



• The lawyers and their associates sent mailers that looked like official class-action lawsuit notifications and stated that their recipients could cut their mortgage to as little as 70 percent of their value, prevent foreclosure and get $75,000 in damages, according to the lawsuit.

For more, see Judge’s ruling keeps Calif. lawyers’, marketers’ assets frozen after bank suit complaint.

(1) See:

• ABA Journal: Accused by Cal. AG of Misleading Clients, Lawyer Fires Back with Federal Civil Rights Suit,
• Press Release: California Attorney General Kamala Harris "Acted as the Pawn of America's Most Powerful Banks" While Violating Homeowners' Civil Rights, Lawsuits Allege.