Advocate: Case Follows Disturbing Trend Of Attorneys Using Their Status As Attorneys In Attempting To Paint Their Loan Mod ‘Business’ As Lawful

From a recent press release from the Lawyers' Committee For Civil Rights Under Law:

• The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Lawyers' Committee) and pro bono counsel McDermott Will & Emery LLP (McDermott) filed a lawsuit, Culliver et al. v. Alarcon Law Group, P.C. et al., in Kings County, New York on behalf of 17 homeowners from New York and nine other states against a network of for-profit loan modification companies.
  
  The suit alleges that defendants, led by New York attorney Rory M. Alarcon, defrauded vulnerable homeowners out of tens of thousands of dollars by falsely promising—for substantial upfront fees and also monthly membership fees—to obtain much-needed mortgage modifications on their behalf, but consistently failing to deliver results.

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• “This is our seventh case filed in Long Island, New York since 2011, targeting this type of egregious scam activity which continues to have a severe impact on financially distressed homeowners who are desperately trying to save their homes,” said Linda Mullenbach, senior counsel for the Fair Housing and Fair Lending Project of the Lawyers’ Committee.
  
  “This case follows a disturbing trend of attorneys using their status as attorneys in an attempt to paint their loan modification ‘business’ as lawful. As a result of the scam activities, homeowners are placed in an even worse position when they are defrauded out of thousands of dollars in illegal fees, incur late fees, experience damage to credit scores, and face an increased risk of foreclosure as a direct result of the scammers who falsely claim to have specialized expertise.”

For more, see Lawyers' Committee Files Suit on Behalf of Distressed Homeowners who Lost Thousands to Alleged Loan Modification Scam.