Marc Dann

December 15, 2020 By Marc Dann

Brian Flick - Managing Partner Dann Law Brian Flick Superlawyer badge One of America’s most prestigious attorney rating services has just confirmed what his colleagues at DannLaw and the thousands of clients he has represented have long known: Brian Flick is a “SuperLawyer” in the field of consumer law. Super Lawyers selects attorneys using a patented multi-phase process that combines peer nominations and evaluations with independent research. Each candidate is evaluated on 12 indicators of professional achievement. Those who score highest then undergo a “blue ribbon” peer review by practice area. Only the highest-rated attorneys make the Super Lawyer list for each state and the designation is reserved for attorneys who excel in their field, contribute to their community, and abide by the highest professional and ethical standards. We are extremely proud that Brian is listed among them.

You can learn more about the SuperLawyer selection process here.

Brian was previously named to the “SuperLawyers Rising Star” list of outstanding attorneys practicing in the fields of consumer and consumer bankruptcy law.

If you are having difficulty making your mortgage payment, are in or are about to be in foreclosure, are being harassed by debt collectors, or believe you have been cheated or abused by a bank, mortgage servicer, lender, or debt collector, contact DannLaw’s very own SuperLawyer, Brian Flick to arrange a free consultation today. You can reach Brian by calling 513-951-7124 or by using our contact form.

Superlawyer selection process

November 2, 2020 By Marc Dann

Elliot Feltner lost $80,000 in equity when the Cuyahoga County Board of Review seized his property. DannLaw has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to decide if the foreclosure violates the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

Three years ago, Elliot Feltner of Cleveland, Ohio, lost a building he inherited from his late wife’s father along with nearly $80,000 in equity when the Cuyahoga County Board of Revision (BOR) used an obscure Ohio law to seize the property in order to satisfy a tax delinquency. A team of attorneys representing Mr. Feltner has now asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of the administrative foreclosure process that has had a devastating impact on residents of Ohio and more than a dozen other states.

In a Petition for Certiorari filed with the Court, former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann of DannLaw, Lawrence G. Salzman, Joshua W. Polk, and Christina M. Martin of the Pacific Legal Foundation, and Andrew Engel assert that the BOR foreclosure process violates the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause, provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment, and sections of the U.S. Code because it does not give property owners the opportunity to seek and receive the equity that remains after a property is sold and the taxes, interest, and penalties due are paid.

“It’s well established that governmental entities have the power to take properties via public domain,” Dann said. “But government was never permitted to do so without compensating the owner for its value until states implemented administrative foreclosure procedures like the one used to confiscate Mr. Feltner’s property.”

“Under long-standing Ohio law, property foreclosed due to delinquent taxes is sold to the highest bidder at a public auction. The property owner is given notice of the impending sale, has time to pay the debt if they can, and receives any funds that remain after the amount owed is paid,” Dann noted. “The process the BOR uses to acquire properties for the county land bank eliminates the auction, significantly shortens the time afforded owners to resolve the delinquency and allows the land bank to keep any excess value. That’s both patently unfair and, as we are prepared to argue, blatantly unconstitutional.”

Dann and Engel first raised the constitutional issues when they petitioned the Ohio Supreme Court to order Cuyahoga County to compensate Mr. Feltner for the equity he lost in the sale. The Court denied the petition on procedural grounds, but Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor and Justices Patrick Fischer and R. Patrick DeWine all stated in concurring opinions that the Court should have addressed the constitutionality of the BOR foreclosure process. Justice Fischer called the situation “disconcerting” and said “the whole scheme is unsettling and just seems wrong.”

While disappointed with the Ohio Supreme Court decision, the comments made by the justices spurred Attorneys Dann and Engel as well as the Pacific Legal Foundation to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. “The principle that citizens should receive just compensation when government takes their property stretches all the way back to the American Revolution,” Dann explained. “And the Supreme Court has ruled on numerous occasions that withholding surplus proceeds from a property owner is a violation of the Fifth Amendment’s Taking Clause. We believe that historic principle and those rulings clearly make the BOR process unconstitutional.”

He noted that the High Court has allowed governments to keep excess proceeds from tax sales if mechanisms were in place that enabled property owners to contest the sale or seek compensation. But the Court has never ruled on whether a foreclosure process that does not offer people like Mr. Feltner a way to recover their equity passes constitutional muster. In addition, Supreme Courts and federal district courts in five states have held that governmental entities must distribute excess proceeds to property owners while federal and state courts in six others have ruled government can keep the money.

“This case gives the Court a perfect opportunity to determine if governmental entities violate the Takings Clause when they seize property worth far more than what is owed in tax debt and refuse to remit excess funds to property owners after the debt is paid,” Dann said. “Given the importance of the issue and the conflicts between state and federal courts we’re cautiously optimistic that the Justices will agree to accept the case and bring clarity to this extremely murky and contentious area of the law.”

For more information please contact Atty. Marc Dann at 216-373-0539 or via email: [email protected]

BACKGROUND

Mr. Feltner’s case shines a distressing spotlight on the BOR foreclosure process. In 2017 after enduring years of personal tragedy and severe health issues, he began the arduous work of putting his affairs in order. That is when he learned the body shop he had inherited from his late father-in-law was encumbered by more than $65,000 in delinquent property taxes, penalties, interests, and costs he could not afford to pay. Fortunately, the property was worth more than he owed. So, he put it on the market and found a buyer willing to pay an amount that would enable him to satisfy the tax debt and earn a profit on the sale.

As he prepared to close, however, the deal fell apart because the BOR had, without his knowledge, foreclosed on and seized the property, which was valued at $144,000. The BOR handed it over to the land bank which then gave it to a private company for nothing. Mr. Feltner never had the opportunity to stop the foreclosure or recover the nearly $80,000 in equity that remained after the tax debt was paid. But, as his attorneys note, Mr. Feltner was not the only loser. The BOR seizure also wipes out the property tax debt so schools and other local governmental entities did not receive one penny of the $65,000 they were owed.

The Petition, media reports, as well as a number of academic studies reveal that what happened to Mr. Feltner is not an isolated incident. Research conducted by the Ohio Center for Journalism found that more than $11.25 million in taxes and $77 million in equity were erased by administrative foreclosures in Ohio in 2019 alone. That figure is dwarfed in the state of Massachusetts where, according to U Mass law professor Ralph Clifford, approximately $56,000,000 is unconstitutionally appropriated from taxpayers each year. The situation is similar in the other states that permit administrative foreclosures.

July 27, 2020 By Marc Dann

I was Ohio’s Attorney General when the fraud-driven collapse of the housing market documented in “The Con” began. I’m proud to say that my office was at the forefront of the effort to hold the big banks, predatory lenders, rating agencies, mortgage brokers, stock and bond speculators, brokerage firms, real estate appraisers and others who ignited the near-collapse of the global economy accountable for their actions.

The things I learned as we investigated the mortgage industry were extremely disturbing and distressing. We discovered the home mortgage, which had for decades been the very foundation of the American dream, had become the cornerstone of a multi-trillion dollar racket run by charlatans, scam artists, and cheaters who gleefully used deceit and trickery to prey upon and ruin working and middle-class families.

While their behavior was deplorable, I was even more outraged by the fact that the regulators responsible for protecting the American people had turned a blind eye to the scam that was taking place under their noses and then refused to prosecute any of the criminals once it blew up.

I founded DannLaw in response to the government’s utter failure to protect and seek justice for homeowners and consumers. For more than a decade, DannLaw has filled the void left by regulators and prosecutors who refuse to do their jobs. We have used the law and the civil justice system to help thousands of families save their homes and to force banks, mortgage servicers, and other cheaters to play by the rules and compensate our clients.

I urge you to watch “The Con” which is fascinating and infuriating and to remember that we at DannLaw are here to do the job the regulators won’t.

You can register for the August 5 free Virtual live premiere of The Con here: https://www.thecon.tv/event

I hope you will join me for this important event.

July 20, 2020 By Marc Dann

Marc Dann - Marc Dann Consumer Fraud & Foreclosure Defense Attorney A lot has happened since we issued our first COVID-19 on March 13. In our tenth update we’ll take a look at recent developments, discuss impending challenges and opportunities, issue a couple warnings, and dispense some sage advice…

Involuntary Forbearance can threaten your financial future

Let’s start with a cautionary tale about involuntary mortgage forbearance. As we’ve said repeatedly, while it can be a lifesaver for people who are facing financial disaster as a result of the pandemic, forbearance is NOT forgiveness. Homeowners will eventually have to make the interest, principal, and escrow payments they have been delaying.

In addition, forbearance may jeopardize court-approved bankruptcy repayment plans and could make it difficult to buy a new home or refinance an existing loan. That’s why we urged homeowners to think carefully before taking advantage of the forbearance programs made available by the CARES Act and many private lenders.

Unfortunately, a number of banks and servicers didn’t give borrowers a choice. Back in May we warned that a number of banks and mortgage servicers were putting homeowners into forbearance by “mistake.” One of the offenders, and I’m sure this will shock no one, was Wells Fargo. According to a CNBC report, borrowers who called servicers seeking information about forbearance and other relief programs were put into forbearance without their consent by swamped call center workers.

At that time we doubted that Wells, perennial winner of the worst bank in the world award, was really doing this by accident. Turns out we were right. NBC News reported on July 16 that Wells was purposely placing borrowers into forbearance without seeking or receiving their permission.

The story focused on Troy Harlow of Buchanan, Virginia who filed personal bankruptcy in 2017 after a kidney transplant put him on permanent disability. Troy never missed a house payment because his primary goal was to stay in his home.

Wells Fargo is among the banks and servicers who have placed borrowers into forbearance without their consent.

That didn’t matter to Wells. Without his knowledge or permission, on April 29 the bank told the bankruptcy court overseeing Harlow’s payment plan that he had asked to pause his mortgage payments because he had been hurt by COVID-19. Harlow who never even thought about asking to be placed in forbearance continued to forward the full amount owed on his mortgage to Wells.

Harlow’s attorneys soon learned that he wasn’t the only victim. Wells had played the same dirty trick on homeowners in 11 states.

That news set off alarm bells here at DannLaw and led us to launch an investigation to determine if borrowers in Ohio and New Jersey have been scammed by Wells and other lenders. With that in mind, we’re asking homeowners to do two things:

First, contact your lender to determine if they have placed you in forbearance without your permission.

Second, if they have you should contact us right away so we can help rectify the problem and determine if we should file a class-action suit on behalf of every borrower who has been abused by Wells and other lenders. You can reach us by calling 216-373-0539 or filling out and submitting our contact form. Please do this right away because involuntary forbearance can cause real problems for years to come.

Is it time to take your loan out of forbearance?

If you chose to place your loan in forbearance, it’s time to start thinking about an exit strategy. If you haven’t been able to make payments because you lost your job or were laid-off when the COVID-19 crisis cratered the economy but are now back to work you should consider taking your loan out of forbearance before the amount of delayed interest, principal, and escrow you owe becomes unmanageable.

To determine if you should begin making your house payment again, consider the amount you owe on your home relative to its value. If your home is worth more than your mortgage balance it is an asset that you should protect. If it is worth less than you owe it is a liability so your mortgage payment should be viewed as a housing cost and compared to alternatives like paying rent. You should also evaluate other factors including the state of the housing market in your neighborhood, the company that owns your loan, and whether you intend to sell your house sometime in the next few years.

The moratorium on foreclosures is about to end

OH Foreclosure Timeline The moratorium on foreclosures imposed at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis are coming to an end in some Ohio counties and will lapse for federally backed mortgages at the end of August. That means sheriff’s sales will resume soon.

If you were in foreclosure when the pandemic struck you should contact your attorney right away. If you have not retained a lawyer contact us to arrange a no-cost consultation so we can review your case and discuss ways we may be able to help save your home. To learn more about the options available to you click here to visit the Foreclosure Defense page on Dannlaw.com.

Evictions set to resume

Dann Law Firm - Foreclosure Defense Today it is estimated that more than 8 million Americans, including tens of thousands of Ohioans, are behind on their rent payments and may soon be evicted from their homes. This number could rise substantially when the CARES Act’s Pandemic Unemployment Insurance payments sunset at the end of July.

While distressing, the situation is not hopeless if renters and landlords communicate with each other and work together to overcome the challenges caused by the pandemic. Here are some important steps to take:

1. Renters should communicate in writing with their landlords about their ability to pay, partially pay, or not pay rent. Both renters and landlords are trapped in a dilemma they did not cause, so landlords may be willing to work out payment arrangements. No one benefits from a vacant apartment.
2. Check this list to determine if your landlord has a federally backed mortgage and is therefore prohibited from evicting tenants. If you are a landlord with a federally backed mortgage you may apply for forbearance if your tenants are unable to pay their rent. The eviction moratorium/forbearance program will end in late August unless Congress extends it.
3. If you reach an agreement with your landlord regarding late or partial payments put it in writing. We will soon post a form on our website that will make it easy to create written versions of tenant/landlord agreements.
4. Do not ignore letters or emails you receive from a court and always attend hearings when ordered. While there are legal defenses available to renters and strict procedures that must be followed before a landlord can evict a tenant, ignoring notices and/or failing to appear just about guarantees that your belongings are going to end up on the street.
5. Retain legal counsel. If you cannot afford an attorney call your local legal aid office. As a service to people impacted by COVID-19, we are making DannLaw’s Cleveland and Cincinnati offices available if you need a computer or internet access to participate in a virtual eviction hearing. A member of our legal team will also be on hand to answer general questions about evictions.
6. I and Jeff Watson, General Counsel to a number of real estate investor groups will conduct a virtual seminar for landlords and tenants on Thursday, July 23 at 8:00 P.M. This informative session, titled, “The Eviction Tsunami: Facts and Strategies that Lawyers, Landlords and Tenants Must Know,” will feature a discussion of the growing eviction crisis as well advice and strategies that will help landlords avoid insolvency and tenants escape homelessness. To register for the seminar click here.

Collection firms are up to their old (dirty) tricks

While debt collectors are typically shameless, there has been noticeable slow-down in activity since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis in March. But as states take steps to restart their economies and courts begin to reopen, we’ve received reports that collection lawyers, debt buyers and creditors are ramping up operations. That means debtors must be on the lookout for and pay close attention to any legal notices they receive.

As we noted in our discussion about evictions, the quickest way to lose a case and have a judgement entered against you is to ignore the problem. Trust me, it’s not going to go away simply because you toss a letter in File 13 or don’t show up for court. So please, respond in writing to communications you receive and appear in court when ordered.

In addition, you should contact us to arrange a no-cost consultation. We’ll be happy to discuss your situation and your options. We’ll also determine if debt collectors have violated any of the laws and rules that protect consumers. If they have, you may be entitled to financial compensation. Here’s a brief overview of the rules that govern the collections industry:

The Fair Debt Collections Act (FDCA). Enacted in 1978, the FDCPAis the most well-known federal consumer protection statute. Its primary purpose is to prevent third-party debt collectors from using abusive, unfair, false, or deceptive practices to collect debts. To put it simply, collectors may not lie to or mislead consumers in the course of attempting to collect a debt. Violators of the Act may be liable for statutory damages, actual damages, and attorney’s fees.
Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) The TCPAlimits the use of automatic telephone dialing systems (ATDS) and artificial or prerecorded voice messages by telemarketers. Since its passage in 1991, the TCPA has been expanded to cover the use of ATDS’s and voice messages by debt collectors and now applies to cell phones if an affected consumer does not have a landline. Under the law collectors may not call a cell phone unless the owner gives consent. That means it’s important for consumers to deny consent verbally during the initial call and then to immediately withdraw consent in writing.

Statutory damages under TCPA range from $500.00 to $1,500.00 per call and may be applied to each and every call made if it is found that a debt collector willfully violated the Act. The ability to “stack” damages serves as an effective deterrent and provides just compensation for consumers who have been victimized by aggressive debt collectors who willfully violate the law.

Check Your Credit Report Weekly

The CARES Act allows you to obtain copies of your credit reports from annualcreditreport.com on a weekly basis. You should take advantage of this opportunity because a number of state unemployment computer systems have sustained massive data breaches. DannLaw has filed class-action lawsuits in Ohio and Arkansas related to those breaches.

In addition, several provisions of the CARES Act are inconsistent with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Please reach out to us right away if you notice inaccuracies on your credit report because you can sue credit reporting agencies and entities that furnish information to them if they refuse to correct mistakes.

The Con Premieres August 5

Marc Dann - "The Con" Documentary Screenshot Finally, I would like to extend a personal invitation for you to join me on August 5 for the premiere of “The Con,” a four-part series about the 2008 fraud and corruption-fueled collapse of America’s housing market. I’m both proud and humbled to say the series highlights the steps I took as Ohio Attorney General and at DannLaw to hold those responsible for the crisis that led to 10,000,000 families losing their homes accountable for their actions. The series provides a lesson for the risks we face as we hurtle toward a pandemic-related recession.

“The Con,” like all movies being released in the midst of the pandemic, is being released direct to video via independent theatres. To receive your invitation to the free live premiere, click here and then click on “Follow” above the video. If you like The Con on Facebook, you’ll be invited to the free live premiere on August 5. We’ll be posting more news about “The Con” in our blog and on our Facebook page in the weeks to come.

July 10, 2020 By Marc Dann

Attorney Emily White - Managing Partner The Dann Law Firm — Atty. Emily White, Director of DannLaw’s Student Loan Practice Group.

At DannLaw we devote considerable time and attention to one of the most challenging areas of consumer law: student loans. That’s why we are particularly pleased and proud to announce that we recently scored an impressive victory for a client in Common Pleas Court.

Our client had been sued by National Collegiate Student Loan Trust (NCSLT), his private student loan lender. The company secured a $42,781.02 judgment against him in 2016 when he did not appear for a hearing on the case. There was just one problem: he failed to appear because he never received notice that NCSLT had filed the action against him. That’s because the company sent the notice via certified mail to his father’s home where he had not lived for four years. His father signed for the letter but never told our client about it.

After being retained to represent the debtor, Atty. Emily White, leader of DannLaw’s student loan practice group investigated, discovered NCSLT’s mistake and filed a motion to vacate the judgment. The motion was granted by the presiding judge who ordered the company to return the $15,000 they had already collected from our client.

This case illustrates three points we make in the student loan section of Dannlaw.com:

First: Don’t ignore notices you receive from a court. While our client didn’t ignore the summons sent via certified mail, NCSLT’s ability to secure a $42,781.02 judgment against him illustrates what can happen when a debtor does not appear at a hearing.

Second, while getting out from under private student loan debt may seem like a hopeless cause, there are a number of effective defenses we can use to protect borrowers from lenders and debt buyers. This case is a perfect example: someone at NCSLT made a technical error, we found it, proved it, and won.

Third, the civil justice system is a beautiful thing when it is administered by competent ethical jurists. We argued our case, the judge made the correct ruling, Our client gets his money and future back, and justice is served.

If you’re struggling with private student loan debt, contact Atty. Emily White to arrange a no-cost consultation. She’ll be happy to evaluate your situation and determine if we can help. We can’t guarantee a positive result, but we can guarantee we’ll do our best to make things better.

July 1, 2020 By Marc Dann

Marc Dann - Marc Dann Consumer Fraud & Foreclosure Defense Attorney The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Seila Law v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau marked the culmination of a years-long attack against the agency by the business community, Congressional Republicans, and the Trump administration. It also provided a major dose of “be careful what you wish for because you just might get it” for the powerful forces who have been trying to destroy the CFPB since it was created in the wake of the collapse of the nation’s housing market in 2007-2008.

Precipitated by Donald Trump’s decision to fire director Richard Cordray in defiance of the statute that established the agency, the suit, filed by a firm that ran a mortgage modification scam, was expected to deal a fatal blow to the CFPB. Or at least that’s what those who lined up on the side of Seila, including the DOJ, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Foundation of Independent Businesses, the Mortgage Bankers Association, and a number of entities that had been tagged by the Bureau for abusing consumers, hoped.

The Court, in a 5-4 decision dashed those hopes. Yes, the majority upheld Cordray’s firing and found that the governing structure of the agency was unconstitutional, but this sentence dealt the CFPB’s foes two staggering blows:

“The agency may therefore continue to operate, but its Director, in light of our decision, must be removable by the President at will.” You may read the entire decision and the amicus briefs here.

The first blow: the CFPB may continue to operate and, thanks to this decision, constitutional challenges to its validity are now at an end. That’s not quite what the boys at the USCOC and the NFIB were looking for when they filed their amicus briefs.

And here’s the second: Kathy Kr CFPB Complaint Database aninger, the unqualified anti-consumer political hack Trump appointed to succeed Cordray can be booted out the door 30 seconds after Joe Biden is sworn into office.

The ironic part of this entire affair is that the governing structure of the CFPB was specifically intended to shield the agency from politics. The GOP’s attacks have now made who will run the Bureau and whether they will use its immense power to protect consumers a perpetual issue in presidential campaigns.

Along with taking great satisfaction at seeing the business community’s attack on the CFPB blow up in their collective faces, we at DannLaw are also extremely pleased that the ruling preserves our ability to act as “private attorneys general” who can use the Real Estate Sales Practices Act (RESPA) and the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) to protect our clients and seek and secure damages from mortgage servicers and lenders who violate the law.

While little noticed, Director Cordray’s creation of a private right to action is one of the most important components of the laws and regulations enacted after the housing crisis. He, along with Senator Chris Dodd, Congressman Barney Frank, and then-professor Elizabeth Warren recognized that the failure of government regulators to exercise their oversight authority played a major role in bringing the nation and the world to the brink of a catastrophic financial meltdown. By giving private attorneys the power to use RESPA and TILA to hold bad actors accountable they created a second line of defense for homeowners, consumers, and the American economy.

At DannLaw, we’ve used that power to help hundreds of people fight off illegal foreclosures, obtain loan modifications, safeguard their assets, and hold onto their hopes and dreams. We’re truly grateful that those who sought to destroy the CFPB have instead guaranteed that we and lawyers like us across the country will be able to use the law to fight for our clients well into the future.

In fact, I’m so grateful, I think I’ll send the guys at Seila and the Trump Justice Department a thank you note today.