Another Case of Turning the Tables on a Sub-prime Lender?
Only a few days ago we thought we were being lawyerly and careful in observing that it’s not often that the tables will be turned on a foreclosing lender as they were in the LaSalle case on which we were commenting at the time. The Law Blog of the Wall Street Journal recently reported another lender had been “dinged” (LB’s term) in court. The LB post provides a link to the Wall Street Journal news story.
The situation, in this case, involved some letters that were possibly forged and used as a basis to threaten foreclosure. The lender’s explanation, as reported in the WSJ news story was that the letters were re-created electronically by an employee.
The WSJ also reports that an executive of Countrywide Financial, the lender, testifying before Congress, admitted that sometimes employees made mistakes but denied that the lender intentionally abused its homeowners.
I would give Countrywide the benefit of the doubt. Mistakes are probably more common than outright, systematic abuse. But, in our post we were making a limited point: that the borrower/homeowner, threatened or in the midst of foreclosure, should consult an attorney and explore all options. That is just as true when dealing with “employees’ mistakes” as it is in the case of intentional wrong-doing.
