Alabama Consumer Law Blog

The Birmingham Business Journal has posted an article about the huge rise in Alabama foreclosures. Nearly one in every 107 households in 2009 was dealing with a phase of foreclosure. Foreclosures have risen 257% in Alabama since 2007.

Ourbroker.com has also posted an article that further elaborates on the massive rise in foreclosures nationally. 2009 saw a rise of 21% in foreclosures, which is 2,824,674 properties, because of the 7.2 million jobs that have been lost since 2007.

Going back to 2005, the annual totals from RealtyTrac look like this:

___ 2009 — 3,957,643 foreclosure filings — up 21 percent.

___ 2008 — 3,157,806 foreclosure filings — up 81 percent.

___ 2007 — 2,203,295 foreclosure filings — up 75 percent.

___ 2006 — 1,259,118 foreclosure filings — up 42 percent.

___ 2005 — 885,468 foreclosure filings.

However, due to state legislation, loan modifications and other short term factors, foreclosures actually decreased for about a four month window. However, the crisis is too severe for the turnaround to have lasted.

“In the long term a massive supply of delinquent loans continues to loom over the housing market, and many of those delinquencies will end up in the foreclosure process in 2010 and beyond as lenders gradually work their way through the backlog.”

December 2009 saw 349,519 foreclosure filings, up 14% from November and up 15% from December 2008. Four states have seen the most dramatic rise in foreclosure rates:

___ Alabama (up 156.26%)

___ Hawaii (up 182.64%)

___ Idaho (up 101.61%)

___ Mississippi (up 135.59%)

___ West Virginia (up 115.91%)

This percentage for Alabama matches up with the data reported by the Birmingham Business Journal.

If you would like more information on foreclosures, please read our articles The Three Stages of Foreclosure in Alabama and Wrongful Foreclosures in Alabama.

If you have further questions feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.
You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

BusinessWeek.com has posted an article about a recent identity theft case. Leonardo Darnell Zanders was convicted for helping to lead a ring of identity theft that caused $1.5 million in losses to financial institutions, including Ben S. Bernanke, a Federal Reserve Board Chairman, and his wife among the victims. Zanders must also repay $1.4 million in reimbursements.

Zanders pled guilty for...

conspiring to commit bank fraud. He helped direct the scheme to use the IDs and stolen bank information to impersonate victims and make “split” transactions, depositing a check drawn on the bank account of another victim, and then siphoning the money out of the falsely inflated account, court records show.

Darrell Earl Price, a co defendant in the trial, testified that Zanders gave him checks belonging to the Bernankes. Mr. Bernanke said that his family was just one of about 500 families affected by Zanders' crime ring. Zanders acquired the Bernanke's bank information after Mrs. Bernanke's purse was stolen.

Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States, victimizing about 700,000 people a year. Consumers should certainly be taking extra precautions to protect themselves from becoming identity theft victims themselves.

If you have questions or concerns, feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

American Banker has posted an article, written by Kate Berry, about two possible outcomes of the current mortgage crisis. Several hundred homes thousand homes have been repossessed and are n the process of foreclosure, and several million homes that have already been foreclosed. Such staggering numbers bring up a difficult question: "How long can lenders put off dumping these properties?"

There are two ideas of what will happen:

One group says a breaking point will come in the second or third quarter: The supply of these distressed homes will get so big that banks and mortgage servicers will have no choice but to begin moving more borrowers into foreclosure and working through their stockpiles of seized collateral...First American CoreLogic, an analytics unit of the Santa Ana, Calif., title insurer First American Corp., has estimated that 1.7 million homes make up the shadow inventory — properties that have been repossessed, are in foreclosure, or are seriously delinquent. This supply is not included in the official measure of inventory — amounting itself to 3.75 million homes - listed in Multiple Listing Services across the country.

Banks are in the difficult situation of trying to figure out what to do when the shadow inventory hits the market to prevent real estate prices from plummeting. Many think the situation will last longer because of programs like Obama's Home Affordable Modification Program.

"The time line for a recovery has been stretched out, because some of these government programs can't cleanly separate out the borrowers who can be saved from those who can't," she said. "Five years from now seems to be the time line for a lot of these servicers."

Servicers have approved 46,056 mortgage modifications under HAMP. Roughly 25% of the 787,231 borrowers in the program are expected to not make payments and drop out.

To speed the resale of foreclosed properties, the Department of Housing and Urban Development said Friday that it will temporarily waive a rule that restricts homebuyers from obtaining Federal Housing Administration-insured mortgages when the seller has owned the house for fewer than 90 days.

Pendley said she expects 65% to 70% of the small group of borrowers who received permanent mods to redefault within a year, largely because so many of these borrowers have large nonmortgage debts and they stretched to buy homes they could not afford.

Many experts say banks are expecting the government to come up with more money to fix the problems by tweaking the program to address borrowers who are unemployed and those who have negative equity.

If you would like more information about foreclosure, check out our articles Wrongful Foreclosures in Alabama and The Three Stages of Foreclosure in Alabama.

Feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447 if you have further questions or concerns.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

Forbes.com has posted an article with tips you can use to clean up your credit score. First, get your credit report. However, be cautious when obtaining a copy as many advertisements for a free credit report can be scams. The Fair Credit Reporting Act enables you one free credit report a year from three major agencies. You can get a report from the FCRA in as little as 60 days if you have been denied credit, are unemployed, or have been a victim of identity theft.

Next, contact the creditor and credit reporting agency if there are any discrepancies on your credit report. An official dispute should be sent to both places in writing and include things like copies of canceled checks. If the error is the reporting agency's fault you should contact them directly.

You should try to bring your score up to the next round number, even if that is just a few points. For example, a score of 710 may be eligible for a mortgage company's best rate, but being as close as a 705 can cost you thousands of dollars. A good suggestion is to get a credit card with a low limit. Use it to buy some things that you would normally pay for with a debit card or cash and paying the balance off each month will boost your score.

Cancelling an unused card can actually hurt your score. If you must cancel cards, keep the ones with the oldest accounts as length of time is important when determining credit scores.

...reputable sources say that canceling an unused card can actually hurt your score rather than improve it. The reason is because in the eyes of the reporting agencies, you'll have a higher utilization ratio, or higher total outstanding credit vs. what you have available to you. You'll essentially have the same outstanding balance as you did the day before (assuming you haven't paid anything down), but you'll have less credit available to you.

Before doing something major, like searching for a mortgage, you'll want any credit repairing you do to show as soon as possible. Some lenders offer rescoring services in as little as 72 hours as opposed to thirty days. Your payment history is still the most important thing when factoring a credit score. If you're behind on payments, do your best to catch up with the accounts you currently have and don't open new ones.

If you have questions or concerns about your credit report, feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

The New York Times has posted an article about the current financial states of Fannie Mae, The American International Group, GMAC and Freddie Mac. Despite receiving massive amounts of money in government bailouts, the companies are still not able to begin to repay the debt. Actually, it looks like they will probably will be given more taxpayer money "from the government just to keep up with their existing government debts."

Though the four are not in all the same businesses, they were caught in one of the same traps: They sold mortgage guarantees — in some cases to each other. Now when homeowners default, as they are doing in record numbers, these companies are covering the losses. Essentially, taxpayer money to these companies is being used partly to protect banks and other investors who own the mortgages.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which buy and resell mortgages, will likely receive another $400 billion this year from the Treasury. Together, the two companies have used $112 billion. GMAC, which finances auto sales, was already given $13.4 billion and is in negotiations for another $5.6 billion "because a government “stress test” showed it was still too weak."

A.I.G., the insurance conglomerate, recently drew $2 billion from a special $30 billion government facility, which was created in the spring after a $40 billion infusion proved inadequate.

Altogether, the four companies have been given or have been promised a total of $600 billion... and it may climb up to $1 trillion if the government doubles its Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae support.

A spokeswoman said that Freddie Mac and GMAC have made all their scheduled payments to the Treasury. A spokeswoman for AIG has said that repaying the taxpayers will be difficult and depend on the market. Fannie Mae also said it will have trouble repaying the Treasury.

If you would like more information on mortgages and foreclosures, please read our articles The Three Stages of Foreclosure in Alabama and Wrongful Foreclosure in Alabama.

If you have further questions, feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

The CL&P Blog has posted an article that discusses the problems with homes that have two mortgages facing foreclosure. First mortgages are usually held by investors in "mortgage backed securities" whereas second mortgages are held by "banks on their own balance sheet."

If the major banks were honest about the value of their home equity debt, their capital would take a huge hit. At a time when the banks are repaying Treasury’s equity investments, they do not want to expose this fundamental weakness in their balance sheets. Bloomberg reports that the four big banks, who are also the largest servicers of investor-owned first mortgages, have a combined total of $450 billion in home equity debt on their own books.

Banks seem to be the primary problem when it comes to write-downs in second mortgages.

Bank of America, for example, has $150 billion in home equity debt, and 50% of it is underwater, or nearly, although most borrowers are still making payments, so far. BofA estimates that half of the home equity debt is on homes with total first and second mortgage debt exceeding 90% of the home value. This at a point when its tier I capital was $191 billion. Total loss provisioning for this portfolio was 6.4%, or about $10 billion, a figure that is clearly inadequate. Large write-offs of BofA’s $150 billion home equity assets would take a big bite out of its capital base.

The Treasury is working on a plan to get second mortgage owners to accept 15 cents on the dollar...but banks are reluctant to cooperate. The current Bankruptcy Code allows homeowners to get rid of second mortgages if the first mortgage as eaten up all home equity. However, few homeowners take advantage of this and instead resort to bankruptcy.

If you would like more information about foreclosure, please check out our articles: The Three Stages of Foreclosure in Alabama and Wrongful Foreclosure in Alabama.

If you have more questions, feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

MSN Money has posted an article about "secret" ways that lenders keep track of your credit score and gauge what kind of customer you would be. Credit scores aren't the only things that companies look at.

"You're being judged by the type of transactions you make, how you pay your bills, how much profit you generate for your lenders and a host of other factors."

This type of information is used to determine things like:

The kind of credit card offers you get.

-Whether your credit limits are raised or suddenly lowered.

-Whether your over-limit credit or debit transactions are approved.

-Whether your card issuer calls you about a suspicious transaction, blocks it or shuts down your account.

-How cooperative your issuer is about waiving fees or lowering your interest rate.

-How quickly your issuer calls you if your payment is late.

-Whether a collection agency contacts you about an old debt and how hard it pushes.

Several other lesser-known things are taken into consideration:

-Credit-risk scores are the most well known and show companies how big of a "risk" your account will be. A score above 700 is considered to be low risk.

-Response scores "predict the likelihood a consumer will respond to an offer of credit, such as a new card or a balance transfer offer."

-Application scores deals with data submitted to the company that's not related to your credit score. The data includes things like how long you've lived at your current address, worked for the same employer and how much you earn.

-Bankruptcy score:

Credit scores typically predict the chance you'll miss a payment in the next two years. Bankruptcy scores predict the likelihood you'll throw in the towel on your debt entirely and file for Chapter 7 liquidation or a Chapter 13 repayment plan, said David Rubinger, spokesman for credit bureau Equifax, which produces the leading Bankruptcy Navigator Index or BNI. BNIs range from 1 to 300, with the higher the score, the lower the predicted risk. Most lenders use both credit scores and bankruptcy scores, Ulzheimer said, to help assess the risk that you won't pay.

-Revenue scores try to predict how much profit your account will generate.

-Attrition-risk scores address the probability of a user no longer using a particular card. This score is often tied in with other scores. For example, if you are low-risk and your account generates large amounts of profit, the credit card company will likely lower your interest rates or raise your credit limit to keep your account.

-Behavior scores

provide a snapshot of how a consumer is handling all of his or her credit accounts. Behavior scores, by contrast, typically focus on a single account (the one you have with that particular creditor) but take in a broad view. Does the user pay off her bills every month, carry a balance occasionally or frequently pay only the minimums on her cards? That information typically isn't available on a credit report, but is contained in the issuer's databases, along with other data that helps the score describe how she handles her account. A behavior score might be used in conjunction with other scores, such as credit or bankruptcy scores, to decide whether an overdue payment is an aberration (maybe he's traveling?) or a sign of impending financial crisis (maybe we should call the consumer today and find out what's going on).

-Transaction scores are used every time you use your card to decide if the transaction will be approved. It is also used to determine if fraudulent transactions.

-Collection scores are used to assess whether or not you'll be able to pay. Collection companies watch for signs of change in your financial situation, such as other accounts being paid off.

If you have had credit card or credit report issues, feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

The CL&P Blog has posted an article based on The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's 3rd quarter report on foreclosures and mortgage modifications. The report discusses how it is more difficult to get a mortgage modification with a securitized mortgage than with "mortgages held on the lender's own books, known as "portfolio" loans."

There are two features of loan modifications that show the big difference in securitized and portfolio loans. The first big difference is called principle reduction.

Lenders holding their own mortgages offered principal reduction in some amount for about one-third of their modifications. Servicers handling investor-owned mortgages, on the other hand, wrote down principal essentially never.

The next difference is the amount of unpaid interest and other fees.

While investors understandably would prefer to add these amounts to borrower's balances rather than write them off, the result is to increase the homeowner's debt burden, and the likelihood of eventual default and foreclosure. Lenders modifying their own loans used capitalization in fewer than 20% of their modifications, while securitized mortgage modifications included capitalization 70% to 80% of the time.

Portfolio loans and securitized loans are very different, but this information definitely shows that securitized mortgage loans are much more difficult to modify.

If you would like more information on mortgages and foreclosures, please read our articles on the subject: The Three Stages Of Foreclosure In Alabama and Wrongful Foreclosure in Alabama.

Should you have further questions, feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

Also remember you are invited to our free tele seminar on Alabama Wrongful Foreclosures set for today, January 19, 2010, at 4 pm CST.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

StarTribune.com has posted an article about how your credit score can affect your employment prospects.

In 1998, a poll conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 25% of employers did credit checks on prospective employees. In 2006 the number rose to 43% of employers. With the current economic state and unemployment nearing 10%, nearly half of hiring companies are...

now seeking credit "employment reports," which include payment histories and open accounts, but not actual credit scores.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires companies to get your consent before getting your credit report. If you are not hired because of information in the credit report, you have the right to see the report and be told how to get your own version of it.

FCRA also requires the companies Equifax, Experian and TransUnion to provide you with a free credit report annually, so it is a good idea for you to be familiar with your credit history so you can fix any errors that appear on your credit report.

Being honest about your credit history is also important and effective.

"If you know you have a credit problem — and you have an explanation — it's always best to be proactive about it," he says. "That step won't hurt a candidate, and can actually be helpful, because it will reinforce an employer's perception of their integrity."

If you have had problems with your credit score or obtaining a credit report, feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

The CL&P Blog has posted an article about a study that links medical issues to a large number of foreclosures. The numbers of foreclosures have been on the rise in the past few years; roughly one in every ninety-two households face it. This is partly due to "typical" reasons we often associate with foreclosure such as rising interest rates, irresponsible borrowers, loose lenders and a bad real estate market.

However, the study found that foreclosures due to medical issues make up a very large, and previously unaccounted for, percentage.

Half of all respondents (49%) indicated that their foreclosure was caused in part by a medical problem, including illness or injuries (32%), unmanageable medical bills (23%), lost work due to a medical problem (27%), or caring for sick family members (14%). We also examined objective indicia of medical disruptions in the previous two years, including those respondents paying more than $2,000 of medical bills out of pocket (37%), those losing two or more weeks of work because of injury or illness (30%), those currently disabled and unable to work (8%), and those who used their home equity to pay medical bills (13%). Altogether, seven in ten respondents (69%) reported at least one of these factors.

If you are facing foreclosure in Alabama and would like more information, please read our articles The Three Stages of Foreclosure in Alabama and Wrongful Foreclosure in Alabama.

Feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

Also remember you are invited to our free tele seminar on Alabama Wrongful Foreclosures set for January 19, 2010, at 4 pm CST.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

WSFA.com has posted a news article that warns consumers to be cautious when making donations to aid those affected by the recent earthquake in Haiti. Attorney General Troy King gives several good tips to prevent people from accidentally donating to fraudulant organizations and scammers. These tips can prevent identity theft.

First, it's best to give in the form of a check or money order that is made payable to a charitable organization. Don't donate cash. You should never give personal information to anyone who contacts you through email, text message or phone call. Only give information to authentic charitable organizations that you personally researched and initiated contact with.

Feel free to ask how your contribution will be used and be concerned if the answer seems hesitant. Decline to donate they seem to be pressuring you to do it in a hurry. Be wary of any organization who offers to come to your home to retrieve donations, or appears at your home asking for donations. Lastly, be apprehensive of charitable organizations who claim to donate 100% of the proceeds to the cause. "Even non-profit organizations have, although minimal, administrative expenses."

If you have had problems with fraud or identity theft, feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

The Birmingham Business Journal has posted an article about the decline of Birmingham-area home sales in 2009.

In 2009, nearly 10,600 homes were sold as opposed to the 12,454 homes sold in 2008. Foreclosures accounted for 31% of December home sales. The 31% is up from 25% in October and 30% in November .

Averages prices also fell 8% to $173,065 and median price dropped 5% to $146,300.

In December, the association said sales dropped 4 percent to 765 from 798 in the same month a year ago, while average price increased 7 percent to $187,689 and median rose 8 percent to $150,500.

If you are facing foreclosure in Alabama and have questions, you might want to read our articles about The Three Stages of Foreclosure in Alabama and Wrongful Foreclosures in Alabama.

Feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

Also remember you are invited to our free tele seminar on Alabama Wrongful Foreclosures set for January 19, 2010, at 4 pm CST.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

Our friend Denise Richardson, of givemebackmycredit.com, has posted a helpful article on how to avoid being the victim of identity theft scammers during the upcoming 2010 census. Richardson warns that scammers can use a variety of methods to gain access to your information. The Census Bureau has strict guidelines it must adhere to when conducting a census and being familiar with some of them will help you protect yourself.

For example, census questionnaires are always mailed directly to you "so be wary of anyone trying to tell you that they have the questionnaire in their possession." If you don't complete your form and mail it back in, a census bureau employee might show up at your home.

Census workers must carry an official government badge that clearly identifies them. This badge includes the individual's name, so you can ask for a second form of identification with their name on it for comparison. Along with the badge, a legitimate census worker carries a confidentiality notice and a binder containing a list of the people they must contact regarding the census. He might also have a small, handheld device or and an official census canvas bag.

Census employees also will not ask to enter your home and only ask for general information, such as age, race, gender and name. The only financial information they might ask about is salary range. Also, official census employees will not ask for you to pay them a fee or give a donation. The easiest solution to avoid this potential type of scammer is to mail your questionnaire back in.

The Bureau also rarely sends out emails. If they do, you will not be asked to supply personal information. If the email contains asks for this kind of information, it is a phishing email and you shouldn't click any links contained in it.

Census phone calls are typically related to surveys only. Do not provide the following information to anyone claiming to be a Census Bureau representative on the phone: social security number, birth dates, credit card numbers, and bank account numbers.

If you have had issues with identity theft feel free to contact us by calling 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

Craig D. Robbins writes an interesting article on his blog entitled "Judges Have Had It with Foreclosing Mortgage Companies Who Skirt the Rules" which we strongly suggest you read.

We won't quote from his blog post as I really want you to read it - good stuff and the related posts are excellent as well.

If you are facing foreclosure issues in Alabama, you may want to read our detailed discussion of Wrongful Foreclosures In Alabama and our overview of the Three Stages Of Foreclosure In Alabama.

Feel free to contact us through our website or you can call us at 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

Also remember you are invited to our free tele seminar on Alabama Wrongful Foreclosures set for January 19, 2010, at 4 pm CST.

Business and banks and mortgage companies are quick to condemn Americans who decide that they are so upside down (owe more than the house is worth) that they will just walk away from the house and allow the mortgage company to foreclose.

This raises two issues.

First, is it right to walk away?

Second, are mortgage companies and banks being hypocritical for condemning homeowners who do this but not themselves when they do it?

On the first issue the answer is there is nothing morally wrong with walking away. That was contemplated in the contract - if the homeowner does not pay the mortgage company gets to foreclose. Consequences flow from this - credit report damage, perhaps being sued for any deficiency, etc. But a choice can be made and it is not unexpected given that lenders made outrageous loans to people who are so upside down it may take decades to get back to even.

On the second issue - the hypocrisy is amazing and disturbing. A recent article in the New York Times by Robert Lowenstein explores this issue. Read the whole article but here are a few fascinating quotes from the article:

Businesses — in particular Wall Street banks — make such calculations routinely. Morgan Stanley recently decided to stop making payments on five San Francisco office buildings. A Morgan Stanley fund purchased the buildings at the height of the boom, and their value has plunged. Nobody has said Morgan Stanley is immoral — perhaps because no one assumed it was moral to begin with. But the average American, as if sprung from some Franklinesque mythology, is supposed to honor his debts, or so says the mortgage industry as well as government officials. Former Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. declared that “any homeowner who can afford his mortgage payment but chooses to walk away from an underwater property is simply a speculator — and one who is not honoring his obligation.” (Paulson presumably was not so censorious of speculation during his 32-year career at Goldman Sachs.)

Think of private-equity firms that close a factory — essentially deciding that the company is worth more dead than alive. Or the New York Yankees and their World Series M.V.P. Hideki Matsui, who parted company as soon as the cheering stopped. Or money-losing hedge-fund managers: rather than try to earn back their investors’ lost capital, they start new funds so they can rake in fresh incentives. Sam Zell, a billionaire, let the Tribune Company, which he had previously acquired, file for bankruptcy. Indeed, the owners of any company that defaults on bonds and chooses to let the company fail rather than invest more capital in it are practicing “strategic default.” Banks signal their complicity with this ethos when they send new credit cards to people who failed to stay current on old ones.

Foreclosures are proceeding at a brisk pace in Alabama and throughout the country. I have not yet met a client that voluntarily allowed the three stages of foreclosure to occur but it is hard to fault someone if they do and certainly we don't need the hypocrisy of Wall Street banks who say "Do as we say, not as we do"......

If you have questions about wrongful foreclosures in Alabama, feel free to contact us through our website or you can call us at 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

Also remember you are invited to our free tele seminar on Alabama Wrongful Foreclosures set for January 19, 2010, at 4 pm CST.

We are often asked questions such as "Why are you guys consumer protection lawyers" or "what is a consumer protection attorney" and we wrote an article on our website to help answer these types of questions. We hope it is helpful to you and let us know if you have any questions - either contact us through our website or call us at 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

Also remember you are invited to our free tele seminar on Alabama Wrongful Foreclosures set for January 19, 2010, at 4 pm CST.

We are holding a tele-seminar on Tuesday January 19th at 4pm CST to discuss issues related to Alabama foreclosures. We will cover the three stages of foreclosures in Alabama and we will go indepth into the issues we laid out in our article on Wrongful Foreclosures In Alabama.

We previously held several in person seminars but we have decided to do it by phone to make it more convenient as you can attend from the privacy of your own home or office or car (stay warm!).

This is designed to give you insight into what your options are if you are facing foreclosure or have already been foreclosed upon by your mortgage company. Very often you have a valid lawsuit or counterclaim against the mortgage company, trustee, or servicer and this tele-seminar will give you some ideas and will help you to take the necessary action to protect your home.

We will also discuss bankruptcy as an option (sometimes it is a good option but often it is better to sue) to stop a wrongful foreclosure.

While you don't have to live in Alabama to attend this seminar, it is focused on Alabama law and will be most helpful to folks living in Alabama.

We look forward to having you on the call - fill out this form below and we will send you the details such as the call in number and password to use to join the call.

If you would rather call us instead of filling out this form that is fine - please call us at 205-879-2447.

We hear a lot of discussion about "foreclosures in Alabama" but this can mean different things to different people. Part of the reason is that when someone is "facing foreclosure" this can mean that the mortgage company or servicing company is threatening foreclosure, or has already foreclosed, or has sued the consumer to evict them from their home.

So we decided to write an article on these three stages of foreclosure in Alabama on our main website.

We hope it is helpful to you, along with our detailed discussion of wrongful foreclosures in Alabama.

Please contact us through our website or by calling us at 205-879-2447 if you have any questions about your situation in Alabama regardless of which stage you are in.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

Also remember you are invited to our free tele seminar on Alabama Wrongful Foreclosures set for January 19, 2010, at 4 pm CST.

On our main website Alabamaconsumer.com we have a new article that will give you what we trust is a helpful detailed discussion of the law on wrongful foreclosures in Alabama.

Here are some of the topic headings from the article:

I'M NOT SURE I UNDERSTAND ALL OF THE TERMS USED IN FORECLOSURES - CAN YOU DEFINE SOME OF THE WORDS FOR ME?

WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF A FORECLOSURE?

IS ALABAMA A JUDICIAL OR NON-JUDICIAL FORECLOSURE STATE AND WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?

HOW DOES A NON-JUDICIAL FORECLOSURE HAPPEN IN ALABAMA?

WHAT IS A MORTGAGE SERVICER?

SO A "TRUST" NORMALLY OWNS MY LOAN?

WHAT IS SECURITIZATION AND WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR ME FACING FORECLOSURE?

I HAVE HEARD OF THE "SHOW ME THE NOTE" OR "LOST NOTE" APPROACH - WHAT IS THAT AND CAN IT HELP ME?

WHAT IS "MERS" AND DOES THIS GIVE ME ANY HELP IN FIGHTING BACK AGAINST A FORECLOSURE?

WHAT ABOUT FORECLOSURE RESCUE COMPANIES THAT I HAVE RECEIVED LETTERS ON OR I SEE ON SIGNS ON TELEPHONE POLES OR ON THE INTERNET?

OK I UNDERSTAND ALL OF THIS - BUT TALK TO ME ABOUT SOME EXAMPLES OF HOW THE FORECLOSURE PROCESS ITSELF CAN BE FLAWED SO THAT I CAN FIGHT BACK.

I'VE HEARD ABOUT ILLEGAL CHARGES THAT CAN GIVE ME OPTIONS IN FIGHTING A WRONGFUL FORECLOSURE - TALK TO ME ABOUT THESE

WHAT ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF FRAUD THAT YOU HAVE SUED COMPANIES FOR?

WHEN CAN I RESCIND A LOAN FOR VIOLATIONS OF FEDERAL LAW?

WHAT IS THE COST TO MEET WITH YOU?

IF I WANT TO HIRE YOU WHAT TYPE OF FEE WILL I BE PAYING?

We hope you find this article helpful - please let us know any questions or suggestions that you might have. If you live in Alabama and want to meet or consult with us, feel free to call us at 205-879-2447 or contact us through our website. We look forward to hearing from you....

We also have new article on the three stages of foreclosure in Alabama that we hope will be helpful to you.

Also remember you are invited to our free tele seminar on Alabama Wrongful Foreclosures set for January 19, 2010, at 4 pm CST.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

The Michigan Collection Law Blog has posted an article, originally from ConsumerReports.org, about how insurance companies, creditors, employers, landlords, insurers and law enforcement agencies (and identity theft criminals) collect more information about consumers than one might expect.

Demand for your personal information has exploded in recent years. Its availability has also raised privacy concerns. When users buy and compile various pieces of information about you, “they can paint a very complete picture of your activities,” says Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group.

For example, insurance claims you have filed are collected by a company called ChoicePoint and are used as references by insurance companies to determine home and auto insurance rates. Your health information, such as records of prescription drugs, is collected by MIB Group for similar reasons. Both of these fall under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, therefore, you can receive a free copy of your credit report annually.

Other information that is monitored and collected about you include your checking account,
returned purchases, rental history, mailing lists and credit history.

If you have any questions or concerns about this topic, feel free to contact us by calling 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

Mann Bracken is famous (infamous) but it appears to be shutting down and dismissing lawsuits. Keep up to date here - I don't know this blogger but they have a rather wicked sense of humor and obvious joy over the downfall of the giant Mann Bracken.

We don't see much of Mann Bracken directly here in Alabama but all of these collectors are scrambling for money which means they are more likely to break the laws than ever before. Learn more about the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and if you live in Alabama and have any questions, please feel free to call us at 205-879-2447 or contact us through our website.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

The Washington Post.com has posted an article about the Obama administration's pledge to provide "unlimited financial assistance to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, an eleventh-hour move that allows the government to exceed the current $400 billion cap on emergency aid without seeking permission from a bailout-weary Congress."

This means that the Treasury Department can basically run the companies as government branches for the rest of Obama's term. However, as this decision was being made, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's executives said they received approval to pay $42 million in "Wall Street style compensation" to their top 12 executives for 2009. Combined, the companies have already received $111 billion in assistance.

Treasury said Thursday that its decision did not mean the firms would need $200 billion or more apiece, but that it instead was seeking to assure markets that the government would stand behind the companies. In a statement, Treasury said the move "should leave no uncertainty about the Treasury's commitment to support these firms as they continue to play a vital role in the housing market during this current crisis."

Although the Obama administration has broadened to oversee these companies, it's possible mortgage-assistance programs will be cut back while executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will receive a base salary of $900,000 as well as various bonuses.

If you have concerns or questions about how this will affect you, feel free to contact us by calling 205-879-2447.

Also remember you are invited to our free tele seminar on Alabama Wrongful Foreclosures set for January 19, 2010, at 4 pm CST.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

We want to let you know about some of the recent cases we have been involved in, particularly where we have filed lawsuits against companies for abusing consumers in Alabama.

Let us know if you have any questions - you can call us at 205-879-2447 or fill out our contact form on our website.

We filed a wrongful foreclosure case for our client who was sued for ejectment by a trustee. In this case the mortgage company foreclosed on our client and then sued him to kick him out of his house. Since the foreclosure, we believe, was improper, we countersued against Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, which is the trustee of this securitized loan. We also believe that the loan was never properly transferred into the trust which claims that it owns the loan - if this is true then the company foreclosing had no more right to foreclose on our client than you or I would. It will be interesting to see what develops in this case where we have alleged fraud (related to a loan modification) and wrongful foreclosure against Deutsche Bank National Trust and the servicer American Home Mortgage Servicing, Inc.

[Also remember you are invited to our free tele seminar on Alabama Wrongful Foreclosures set for January 19, 2010, at 4 pm CST.]

Illegal voicemail cases are very common because it is probably the most common form of violation of federal law.

We sued Leading Edge Recovery Solutions, LLC. Our client has alleged that Leading Edge Recovery Solutions, LLC violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) by making illegal calls to our client's cell phone with pre-recorded messages. These are the messages that are left by a computer rather than a live human being. Normally these calls are made by an "auto dialer" which is a computer or telephone system that automatically places the calls. This is when you get a call and the voice says "Please hold for the next operator" - a sure sign that a computer has called and now it is searching for the next operator who is free to transfer your call to. In this suit our client has alleged that Leading Edge Recovery, Solutions, LLC also made an illegal third party disclosure to the client's father.

Another illegal voicemail case involves Enhanced Recovery Corporation out of Florida. Our client alleged that this debt collector violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) by refusing to give the proper disclosures when leaving voicemails, including failing to leave the Mini-Miranda ("this is an attempt to collect a debt" and "we are a debt collector").

In a case filed against The Brachfeld (a/k/a Brachfield) Law Group d/b/a Brachfeld & Associates, PC, a California lawfirm and collection agency, our client alleged that this debt collector violated the TCPA by making a large number of harassing illegal calls to our client's cell phone. The calls, as is common among debt collectors, used pre-recorded messages and were most likely made with the use of an autodialer or predictive dialer.

We filed an additional lawsuit against Brachfeld Law Group (Brachfeld & Associates, PC) for repeated calls without permission to the consumer's cell phone using an autodialer and pre-recorded messages. This alleged conduct would violate the TCPA and state law on harassment and invasion of privacy.

A second case against Leading Edge Recovery Solutions, LLC, out of Illinois, was filed by a client alleging, again, that this debt collector illegally used prerecorded messages and/or predictive/autodialers when calling the client's cell phone. The allegations include that this violates the TCPA.

Harvard Collection Services, Inc., a collection agency out of Illinois, was sued by a client for alleged violations of the FDCPA and the TCPA in the multiple calls to the client's cell phone looking for someone other than the client. It violates the FDCPA to call a "third party" (anyone other than the consumer who allegedly owes the money) after the third party has said they will not or cannot provide location information to the collector. The complaint alleges that the bill collector used pre-recorded messages and/or autodialer calls against the cell phone of the client.

ARS National Services, Inc, a collection agency out of California, was sued by a client claiming that this debt collector violated the FDCPA by refusing to make the proper disclosures when leaving voicemail messages. It is critical that debt collectors comply with this portion of the law - making disclosures - in whatever form they choose to attempt to collect the debt. They do run the risk, however, of violating the prohibition against third party disclosures when they leave voicemails. While the debt collection industry wrings it hands over this "tough situation" of which law to violate (disclosure laws or third party laws) the courts have provided a simple and elegant solution - don't leave voicemails. Collect debts without leaving voicemails - there is no God given right to leave a voicemail despite what many collectors would argue....

A Florida collection agency known as Omni Credit Services of Florida, Inc., was sued by a client for violating the FDCPA in the voicemails left which did not contain the proper disclosures, including the Mini Miranda.

J.C. Christensen & Associates, Inc., a Minnesota collection agency, was sued by a client alleging that illegal voicemails were left which violated the FDCPA. The voicemails did not contain the Mini Miranda or other required disclosures according to the lawsuit filed against J.C. Christensen & Associates, Inc.

A client also sued a company that we have sued a number of times - a debt collector from New York known as Creditors Interchange Receivable Management, LLC. This company allegedly called our clients numerous times on the consumer's cell phone using an autodialer and pre-recorded messages. The consumer alleges he never gave Creditors Interchange or the original creditor the cell phone number and therefore the calls were illegal under the TCPA.

Third party disclosure cases reveal common violations by debt collectors. They love to contact people other than the consumer (or consumer's spouse) because having your boss or parent or neighbor or ex-mother in law call you after being contacted by a debt collector is very intimidating.

Our client sued Viking Collection Service, Inc., a collection agency out of Minnesota, for allegedly repeatedly calling our client's parent even after the parent told the collector the consumer did not live there. In our opinion this type of misconduct violates the FDCPA and Alabama law on privacy - this is known as an "Invasion of Privacy" claim in Alabama.

The Pennsylvania debt collector Academy Collection Service, Inc., was sued by a client for its collection activities. The client alleges that Academy Collection Service, Inc. made third party disclosures to someone other than the client in violation of the FDCPA and Alabama state law.

Fair Credit Reporting Act cases deal with the important subject of our credit reports and inaccuracies that either the credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, Innovis, and Trans Union) or furnishers (such as Bank of America, Discover Card, Capital One, etc) refuse to correct.

A client sued GEMB (GE Money Bank - this bank is behind many store and gas cards), Equifax Information Services, Inc., Trans Union, LLC, and Innovis Data Solutions, Inc. for refusing to correct the client's credit reports. An account that was opened four years before the client was born was reported as the client's individual account! The allegations include that the client disputed the account directly to the credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Innovis, and TransUnion) and after they investigated it and notified GEMB so it could investigate the dispute, all of the defendants decided to keep this account on the consumer's credit reports. The allegations include that the defendants violated the FCRA and Alabama state law.

We will keep you posted on new suits that we file and will continue to look back at some of the suits we filed in 2009 to give you an idea of what your options may be and what to look out for when dealing with these types of consumer issues.

Feel free to visit our other sites - Illegal Voicemails and Sued By A Debt Collector.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below: