Kassas Law's Mortgage Litigation Leads National Trend

COSTA MESA, Calif., Aug. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Kassas Law, a California firm providing client-focused interdisciplinary services is increasing litigation against lenders, leading the national surge in mortgage servicing litigation. As the situation of homeowners nationally has worsened and stories of Lender/Servicer neglect have increased, the Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) service of Kassas Law Group has proven its results defending homeowners with advance legal action. In the rare cases when lenders or servicers will not respond to initial contact, Kassas Law has been aggressive in defending homeowners with complete litigation.

Millions who are financially struggling and facing foreclosure have tried modifying their loans, many have failed, and many who had loans modified only received a short-term fix from their Lender, later resulting in default because of the bank's poor decisions.  Since Lenders and the Regulation have been slow to act, homeowners are only finding resolution through the courts.  While Kassas Law Group has been leading the industry with its legal strategy, the trend of litigation is increasing nationally. According to the Mortgage Litigation Index national litigation against servicers rose 88% in the first quarter of 2011 even as overall mortgage-related litigation was unchanged.

To illustrate the severity of the situation, JPMorgan Chase reported $1.1 billion in litigation expenses during the first quarter. In addition, Bank of America reported an increase of $558 million in one quarter to total $940 million in litigation costs for three months. Furthermore, Bank of America faces more than $25 billion in judgments and settlements from securities fraud suits. However even as the second largest non-oil producing company in the USA, Bank of America's net income in 2010 was only $2.2 billion and this settlement almost equals the dollar value of Bank of America's total Loan Loss Provision.  Even Wells Fargo has become a target of a DoJ probe for discriminatory Lending, settling civil charges for $85 million against the claim over 10,000 borrowers were inappropriately steered into subprime mortgages or had documents falsified. Homeowners, legislators, and bankers are still learning the extent of America's poor mortgage lending practices and homeowners have found litigation is the most effective recourse available.  

Although one could argue that litigation trends have increased in all disciplines such as patent, commercial, and medical law, the cases being brought against Lenders are not frivolous. To the contrary, mortgage litigation cases have highlighted the severity of America's regulatory environment and lack of judgment, oversight, and ethical culture within many banks. With Servicers preferring to foreclose rather than modify and staff falsifying and ignoring documents, homeowners generally have been forced to ask themselves "why settle when you can sue" in order to avoid paying banks thousand of dollars unnecessarily or even to keep their homes.

"It's apparent that the system in place to assist homeowners obtain a Loan Modification is broken, statistics show that Modifications simply don't work and frankly are a waste of time and stress for homeowners," said Anthony Kassas, Principal at Kassas Law.  "We've succeeded resolving our clients' legal disputes without litigation but have found that the only way to have our individual client's voice heard with the Lender is in the courtroom. Kassas Law Group will be taking an aggressive step to bring appropriate action to the guilty.  Unfortunately, Lenders still remain unorganized and unwilling.  The time is coming to bring our clients together, join forces, and open the eyes of the guilty."

About Kassas Law

Kassas Law is a highly regarded law firm providing client-focused, interdisciplinary services that result in high-value legal counsel for our clients. Anthony Kassas, Esq. founder and lead attorney at Kassas Law has been advocating for everyday Americans in areas that encompass the full range of consumer legal services, bankruptcy, real estate litigation, and default resolution. For more information visit our website: kassaslaw.com

SOURCE Kassas Law