Thursday, November 29, 2012

Texas Law Firm Agrees To Stop Trying To Clip West Virginia Residents Eligible For Nat'l Foreclosure Fraud Settlement Cash For Fees To Submit Simple One-Page Claims Form

From the Office of the West Virginia Attorney General:
  • Attorney General Darrell McGraw announced [] that Murray LLP, a Texas law firm, agreed to permanently discontinue offering a service to West Virginia foreclosure victims that a lawsuit filed by his office characterized as unscrupulous and deceptive. The agreement with Murray is reflected in a final order recently entered on November 1, 2012 in the Circuit Court of Jefferson County that settles the suit filed against Murray.

    The suit alleged that Murray, through its website, www.bringaclaim.com, sought to charge consumers a fee of 20% to assist them in processing a claim for benefits they were already guaranteed to receive under the National Mortgage Settlement (“NMS”) reached earlier this year by the federal government and 49 state attorneys general with the nation’s five largest mortgage loan servicers.

    The only requirement to receive the payment, estimated to be $1,500 to $2,000, is completion of a simple one-page form that was mailed directly to all eligible persons. Attorney General McGraw’s suit alleged that Murray attempted to wrongfully profit from this process by leading consumers to believe that its services were necessary to obtain the money when, in fact, the claims process was intended to be simple and free.

    In the final order entered by the court, Murray agreed that it would not represent or collect payments from West Virginia consumers in relation to the NMS claims process or any other non- litigation foreclosure services. Murray also agreed to place a notice on its website, www.bringaclaim.com, advising that its services were not available in West Virginia.