The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) recently finalized several amendments and clarifications to the mortgage rules, proposed on June 24, 2013. The key changes include the following: Mortgage Servicing The amendments include a process for servicers to offer short-term forbearance plans to delinquent borrowers, without completing the full loss-mitigation evaluation […]
Confidential Settlement Reached in Wrongful Conviction Case
The City of Council Bluffs, Iowa this week settled a lawsuit brought by two men who were wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for 25 years. The lawsuit, brought by Terry Harrington and Curtis McGhee, was scheduled for retrial this week. The original trial ended in mistrial in December 2012 after jurors […]
Mobile Lab and X-Ray Provider to Pay $17.5 Million for Fraudulent Claims
Diagnostic Laboratories and Radiology (“Diagnostic Labs”) will pay $17.5 million to settle claims that the California-based company violated the federal and California False Claims Acts by paying kickbacks for referral of mobile lab and radiology services that were thereafter billed to Medicare and Medi-Cal (California’s Medicaid program). Diagnostic Labs reportedly […]
CFPB Resolves Debt Settlement Enforcement Action
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) announced an enforcement action against Meracord, LLC, a debt settlement payment processor, for helping other entities collect millions of dollars in illegal upfront fees from consumers. The CFPB has asked a federal court to approve a consent order that would require Meracord and its […]
Bank of America Goes to Trial on Mortgage Fraud Charges
Jury selection began on October 1, 2013 in the government’s first financial crisis case to go to trial against a major bank over defective mortgages. The case involves claims that Bank of America’s Countrywide unit approved deficient home loans in a process called “Hustle,” defrauding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, […]
Hilton Head Hospital Accused in Medicaid Kickback Scheme
Hilton Head Hospital has been named in a whistleblower lawsuit alleging that the hospital paid kickbacks to a clinic that directed expectant, undocumented mothers living in the United States to the hospital as a way to increase Medicaid revenue. The federal qui tam lawsuit was recently unsealed, meaning that the […]
NC Policy Watch Comments on Recent Pro-Business Supreme Court Decision
NC Policy Watch recently published an article highly critical of the North Carolina Supreme Court’s August 30, 2013 decision in Bumpers v. Community Bank of Northern Virginia. In Bumpers, the North Carolina Supreme Court reversed a summary judgment ruling in favor of a victim of predatory lending practices. In the […]
CFPB Report Cites Mortgage Servicing Problems
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) issued a report on August 21, 2013 detailing widespread mortgage servicing problems at both banks and nonbanks. Read the Supervisory Highlights report. The report also found that a number of nonbanks lack effective systems for ensuring compliance with federal law. Under the Dodd-Frank Wall […]
Non-Profit Inquiry Debunks Theory That Litigation is to Blame for Soaring Medical Costs
Public Citizen, a national non-profit organization which represents consumer interests through, inter alia, lobbying, litigation, research, and public education, recently issued a comprehensive report which disproves the argument that medical malpractice litigation was the driving force behind increasing medical costs. The report is titled ‘No Correlation: Continued Decrease In Medical […]
Safety Rule of 75 Percent Protects Consumers
We recently concluded a trial where we discovered that the insurance company was manipulating the actual cash value of the vehicle to keep from “totaling” a van. In North Carolina there is a safety rule that states if a vehicle is damaged where the repairs are going to cost 75 […]
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