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An important message from DannLaw Founder Marc Dann

Fair Debt Collections Practices Act

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DannLaw founder Marc Dann
Attorney Marc Dann

I am pleased to announce that attorneys Kurt Jones, Alisa Adams and Andy Engel as well as paralegals Maureen Dial, Madellyn Brown, and Ivona Gates who were formerly associated with Advocate Attorneys LLP have joined DannLaw and will now represent their consumer arbitration clients as members of our outstanding legal team.

The seamless transition of the Advocate staff to DannLaw will ensure that clients continue to work with the attorneys and support staff they know and trust and that cases will proceed without undue disruption or delay.

We welcome our new colleagues, and we look forward to providing their clients with exceptional level of professional service that has made DannLaw one of the nation’s leading consumer protection and class action litigation law firms.

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The End of Covid Forbearance is here. Time to rework your loan. 

DannLaw founder Marc DannMortgage forbearance and other programs made available to homeowners during the COVID-19 pandemic are about to end. That means millions of homeowners are or will soon be pursuing loan modifications or other work out options with their lenders. Karen Ortiz, Roberto Rivera, and DannLaw’s highly experienced and knowledgeable legal staff are here to help families navigate the complicated process and select the payment structure that best meets their needs. Please contact us to arrange a no-cost, no-obligation consultation by calling 216-373-0539 or completing our contact form.

Changes at DannLaw

We are sad to announce that Attorney Whitney Horton is leaving DannLaw after being a valuable member of our team for more than seven years. If Whitney has been working on your case, a notice of substitution of counsel will be filed in the next few weeks. Whitney Kaster, who was at DannLaw before the pandemic is returning to the firm on Monday April 24. Attorney Kaster will work me and Emily White on foreclosure defense matters and with Brian Flick on Consumer Protection cases.  In addition, Amanda Severt who has been our administrative assistant has been promoted and will now work as a paralegal assigned to foreclosure cases and state court litigation.

 Student Loan Changes

The U.S. Department of Education is making changes to the Income Based Repayment program for Federal Student Loans that should enable lower income borrowers to fulfill their obligations faster and qualify for Public Service or other Loan forgiveness programs sooner. You may read about the changes here. Richard Cordray who served as Ohio Treasurer and AG before being named the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and is now in charge of Student Loan Issues at the DOE drafted and implemented these significant improvements.  

Foreclosures Are Ramping Up 

Along with forbearance and other relief programs, foreclosure stays are ending.  That means hundreds and perhaps thousands of new judicial foreclosure actions will be filed in Ohio, New Jersey and other states. We have the experience, expertise, and knowledge needed to save your home.

Remember this important point: The filing of a foreclosure lawsuit is the beginning, not the end of the process. Please reach out to DannLaw or another attorney as soon as you know a foreclosure action has been filed against you. If you’ve been served with a foreclosure complaint you have a short time–28 Days in Ohio–to retain a lawyer and file an answer. The vast majority of people who retain us because they want to stay in their home are able to do exactly that.

In addition to defending the foreclosure action, we conduct a thorough investigation to determine if your mortgage loan servicer has followed all applicable rules and laws that govern mortgage lending. If we discover violations, we can bring and pursue claims against the mortgage company. Our foreclosure clients pay an affordable monthly payment into our trust account to cover the fees that we earn in their cases. We offer a free consultation. If you or anyone you know has been sued for foreclosure please contact us here, or call us at 216-373-0539. To schedule an appointment with me visit calendly.com/mdann.

 Regulation F Changes the Game for Debt Collectors and Consumers 

 The CFPB has enacted new strict rules that govern the manner in which debt collectors may contact you by mail, email, text, telephone or social media. You can read about the new regs here. In addition, Credit Reporting Agencies will no longer report most medical debt. This should help consumers improve their credit score. If you believe a debt collector has made a misrepresentation to you or contacted you by phone, letter, text, or email at an inappropriate time you may be entitled to financial compensation. Please feel free to contact us to discuss your situation.

 Data Breach Cases

Multiple courts have selected DannLaw to serve as Class Counsel in data breach Cases. A data breach occurs when a company fails to properly safeguard its customers’ personal information. Our legal staff devotes considerable time and resources to pursuing and securing just compensation for the inconvenience, expense, and aggravation data breach victims endure.

I have a new perspective on that today. I’ve been ensnared in multiple data breaches. Someone obtained my personal information and “took over” my bank account. I’ve spent 20 hours sorting out payments, ACHs and was forced to visit my bank three times. I have a renewed passion to ensure that companies who allow breaches to occur are held accountable for their actions.  If you are notified that your information is at risk due to a breach, contact us immediately so we can take all available legal steps to secure just compensation for you and other data breach victims.

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Atty. Andrew Wolf AnnouncementDannLaw founder and former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann announced today that Attorney Andrew Wolf of North Brunswick, New Jersey has become an “Of Counsel” member of DannLaw’s Consumer Protection and Class Action Litigation Practice groups. Wolf, who has earned a reputation as one of the nation’s most effective consumer advocates will be based in DannLaw’s New Jersey/New York office.

“Andrew Wolf’s impressive level of experience, skill, and knowledge will significantly enhance our ability to both fight for middle and working-class families and to handle the influx of cases that will be generated in the coming months as millions of Americans exit mortgage forbearance and the federal foreclosure moratorium sunsets,” Dann said. “We could not have picked a better time to add a talented attorney with Andy’s level of expertise in individual and class action consumer protection law to our outstanding team.”

Wolf, who has resolved hundreds of individual consumer protection cases and been named Class Counsel in more than 135 state and federal class actions since entering private practice 24 years ago, said he eagerly seized the opportunity to join the team of attorneys that has pioneered the use of the nation’s most complex laws to secure justice for consumers and hold corporate wrongdoers accountable for their actions.

“When I opened my first office in 1997, I wrote down a simple mission statement – I am going to be a consumer protection attorney whose goal is to help as many people as possible who have been ripped off or taken advantage of in some way,” Wolf said. “I knew that if I did that I would make a decent living. After accomplishing that goal for 24 years and helping tens of thousands of consumers along the way, my new goal is to continue doing that good work at DannLaw.”

“Our familiarity with and respect for Andrew’s body of work along with the synergies that existed between our two firms served as the catalyst for the discussions that resulted in our teaming up,” Dann said. “I’m confident our new relationship will benefit Andrew, DannLaw, and our existing and future clients while causing nothing but headaches for unscrupulous lenders, scam artists, and corporate miscreants of all types. Andrew and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Andrew Wolf’s biography may be viewed here.

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If you are a former Home Savings or First Federal customer who now banks with Premier, contact us TODAY so we can protect your family’s financial future and fight for the monetary compensation you need and deserve.

The slogan “Better Together” used by officials of Home Savings Bank and First Federal Bank to characterize the merger that created Premier Bank in April 2020 will ring hollow if the new bank has violated the federal laws and rules that govern mortgage lending and servicing by engaging in these and other abusive practices:

  • Failing to automatically withdraw and/or correctly credit monthly house payments to borrowers’ accounts;
  • Failing to send borrowers monthly mortgage statements;
  • Refusing to respond to requests for information, including loan payoff amounts, in the timeframe required by law;
  • Providing false and/or inaccurate information to the major credit bureaus about the status of borrowers’ loans.

The impact of illegal acts like these can be devastating. Victimized homeowners could see their credit scores plummet by hundreds of points, be unable to refinance their homes to take advantage of low-interest rates, find it difficult to obtain a mortgage for a new home, and be denied credit or charged higher interest rates on auto loans and other types of borrowing.

That means mistakes made by Premier could cost borrowers tens of thousands of dollars—even though they did nothing wrong.

If you believe you have been abused by Premier or have questions about the bank’s actions/activities, please contact DannLaw and Marc Dann immediately by email at [email protected], calling 877-475-8100 or via the contact form on our website: dannlaw.brmcstaging.com/contact to arrange a no-cost, no-obligation consultation that will enable us to
determine if you are eligible to receive substantial monetary damages under the provisions of the Real Estate Sales Practices Act (RESPA), the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).

Please contact us TODAY so we can begin protecting you, your family, and your financial future.

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Brian Flick - Managing Partner Dann LawBrian Flick Superlawyer badgeOne 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

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Today, we’re going to tell you story about good vs. evil, right vs. wrong. The main character in the tale is Riad Ghosheh who owns a home that Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC and PHH Mortgage Services tried to steal. They’re the bad guys.

How bad?

Ocwen/PHH: The bad guys who tried to steal Riad Ghosheh’s home. Nearly 12,000 consumers have lodged complaints about the company with the CFPB.

As of this year, more than 11,000 complaints against Ocwen had been lodged with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). PHH, which Ocwen acquired in 2018, has been tagged 781 times. Ocwen, a company we’ve fought and written about many times, is truly among the worst of the bad actors that populate the mortgage servicing industry. It won’t come as a surprise that the company no longer operates under the Ocwen name. They decided to hide behind PHH’s relatively clean reputation. But believe us, Ocwen’s back there pulling the strings.

Those are the bad guys. Who are the good guys?

Well us, of course, the DannLaw legal team. When Riad learned that Ocwen/PHH was about to steal his home he contacted us. Here’s a spoiler alert: we saved his house. On October 30, Federal District Court Judge Mark Norris issued a temporary restraining order that stopped the bad guys from moving forward with a foreclosure that was scheduled for November 1. In the wake of Judge Norris’ ruling, Ocwen/PHH has decided to abort its attempt to swipe Riad’s residence. You can read Judge Norris’ order here: tnwd-2_2019-cv-02710-00015 (1)

Talk about riding to the rescue just in the nick of time…

But the saga doesn’t end there. Simply saving Riad’s house didn’t seem like justice to him or us. Ocwen/PHH had put him through a horrible ordeal. They broke the law—in fact, they broke a bunch of them. So we’re using those laws, in particular the Real Estate Sales Practices Act (RESPA) to hold Ocwen/PHH accountable and make them pay for nearly wrecking Riad’s finances and disrupting his life. You can read the complaint we filed against the companies in Federal District Court for the Western District of Tennessee here: Ghosheh Riad 2019 10 18 TS Complaint

Truth be told, we’ve helped hundreds of people like Riad over the years. But his story is both especially compelling and infuriating, so we thought we’d share it, both as a cautionary tale and to illustrate the strategies we use to fight giant banks and mortgage servicers—and WIN.

Here’s our story…

The home Ocwen/PHH tried to steal from Riad Ghosheh.

Riad Ghosheh, who is legally deaf and partially blind, owns a home in Cordova, Tennessee, a community just east of Memphis. Earlier this year, Riad went to Israel for an extended period of time to take care of family business. Before leaving he asked his son to make the mortgage payments on the home and gave him the money to do so.

You can probably guess what happened next: his son didn’t make the payments. Riad returned to the United States and learned that his loan had gone into default. Needless to say, this was not the homecoming gift he expected.

In order to stop the home from going into foreclosure, Riad filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy on June 3, 2019. As we’ve noted in our blogs and on our website, filing Chapter 13 immediately brings foreclosure actions to a dead stop.

On or about the same day, Riad received a “Streamline Modification Trial Period Plan” (TPP) from Ocwen his loan servicer. Loan modification plans like this are designed to give homeowners the opportunity to prove they can make their mortgage payments and resolve arrearages. They are also supposed to stop foreclosures. Note the use of the word “supposed.” This will be important in just a bit.

The TPP Riad signed and returned to Ocwen well before the deadline set by the company. Ironically, the letter opens with the word “congratulations” and contains the phrase “We’re here to help!” The former was a cruel joke, the latter an outright lie.

If he accepted the proposed TPP, Riad would be required to make three payments of $1,418.15 beginning July 1. If he made the three payments on time, the company would offer him a permanent loan modification plan. Riad signed the TPP on June 18, 2019, and mailed it to Ocwen the same day.

Because he knew he could afford to make the payments called for in the TPP and because the agreement was supposed to prevent Ocwen from foreclosing on his home, Riad allowed his bankruptcy petition to be dismissed. After all, his main reason for filing was to save his home from foreclosure—a threat he supposedly no longer faced.

There’s that word again.

On June 24, Riad, as required by the TPP, made the July payment of $1,418.15. Records show Ocwen received the payment on June 28. He made the August payment on July 24 and the September payment on August 26. Three payments required. Three payments made—early.

So far so good, right?

Look, we told you this was a story of good vs. evil, not a fairy tale. Things were far from good.

Here’s what happened to the three payments:

Ocwen kept the July payment but never applied it to Riad’s loan;

On September 22, PHH, which had taken over the loan, sent the August payment back along with a letter notifying Riad that he had violated the terms of the TPP;

The September payment, which was made nearly a month before PHH sent back the August payment, is MIA. No one at Ocwen/PHH can find it.

Riad was, to say the least, alarmed by these events, so he asked the person who held his power of attorney to contact the bankruptcy lawyer who had filed the Chapter 13 petition on his behalf earlier in the year.

This was a good call on Riad’s part because the bankruptcy attorney was the person who notified him that his house was slated to be sold out from under him on November 1. Ocwen/PHH had never contacted him or his counsel. The lawyer only knew the sale was about to take place because he saw it advertised in the newspaper. It appears the fine folks at Ocwen/PHH who forgot to apply Riad’s July payment to his mortgage then forgot to notify him that they were about to steal his home did remember to advertise the attempted theft in the paper.

At this point, put yourself in Riad’s place. You trusted your kid to make your house payments. He didn’t.

You trusted your mortgage servicer to play by the rules and honor the terms of a mortgage modification plan they offered you. They didn’t.

You assumed that Ocwen/PHH would abide by the laws that govern the mortgage servicing industry. Of course they didn’t. Abiding by the law is not part of their business model.

And as a result of it all, you came within days of becoming homeless—even though you did everything you were supposed to do.

And Riad, like thousands of other people who have been victimized by Ocwen, would have been homeless had he not contacted the DannLaw team.

As we mentioned above, we’ve already saved Riad’s home. Now we’re suing Ocwen/PHH in Federal Court to make them pay for the emotional and physical distress their sordid behavior caused, for damaging Riad’s credit, and for violating both RESPA and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). Our filing alleges that Ocwen/PHH did the following:

Count One: RESPA Violations

Count Two: Breach of Contract

Count Three: Promissory Estoppel (OK, we know you don’t know what that is, and the explanation is really long and complicated, but take our word for it, Ocwen/PHH did it.)

Count Four: Conversion

Count Five: Unjust Enrichment (This one is easy to understand, it basically means Ocwen/PHH stole Riad’s cash.)

Count Six: Violations of the FDCPA

The best thing is, Riad doesn’t have to pay us to wage this battle on his behalf. If we win the case, Ocwen/PHH will be required to pay our fees and we will receive a small percentage of any damages the court awards.

And the damages part is no fairytale—we’ve won significant financial awards for people like Riad numerous times in courts across the U.S.

That’s our story. We’ll let you know how it ends. But in the meantime, if you or someone you know is facing foreclosure or is being abused by a bank or mortgage servicer, don’t be a victim. Fight back like Riad, by contacting the experienced foreclosure defense attorneys at DannLaw. You can reach us by calling the office near you or by completing the form on our Contact page.

We’ll be happy to schedule a no-cost consultation, provide you with sound legal advice, and help you save your home and win the financial settlement you deserve.