Tag Archives: Kaslow

Kramer Kaslow: Home Mortgage Servicer Sues Lender in Unprecedented Law Suit

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Calabasas, CA (PRWEB) May 31, 2011

Consolidated plaintiff litigation attorney Philip A. Kramer announced recently that One West Bank, a servicer of home mortgages, is suing a lender, HSBC, in order to prevent them from foreclosing on homeowner Pamela Jeter. (One West Bank, FSB vs HSBC Bank Association, as trustee of the Deutsche Alt-A Securities Mortgage Loan Trust, Series 2006-AR5; United States District Court, Southern District of New York; Case 1:10-cv-04855-SHS).

News sites such as Propublica.org are weighing in on the suit. The suit is remarkable not only because it seems unique — close observers said they hadn’t seen another example of a servicer going to court against a trustee — but also because it lays bare a relationship that is usually a mystery to homeowners and investors in securitized mortgages, said Propublica.org representatives.

Philip Kramer, an attorney and senior partner at the law firm of Kramer & Kaslow as well as a past president of the Los Angeles West Inns of Court, a national organization dedicated to bringing professionalism and civility back into the legal profession also weighed in on the suit. In all my years of practicing law, I have never seen anything like this, says Philip Kramer. I have seen lenders deny people before. I have seen paperwork get lost. I have seen all kinds of things, but what happened next was a first even for me. For a servicer to sue the noteholder? That is unheard of!

ABOUT PHILIP KRAMER

PHILIP A. KRAMER is the senior partner of the Law Office of Kramer & Kaslow, in Calabasas, California. Kramer & Kaslow is Martindale Hubbell AV rated. Mr. Kramer is a perennial recipient of the prestigious Southern California Super Lawyer award.

Mr. Kramer received his undergraduate degree from Ohio State University and his Juris Doctorate from the Catholic University of America, in Washington, DC. His practice emphasizes commercial litigation and trial advocacy, with a concentration on business litigation, and real property matters. He has prosecuted and defended cases for over twenty five years.

Mr. Kramer is a licensed real estate broker and has spent considerable time providing legal services in connection with real estate issues relating to loan modification and loss mitigation, land use and zoning, environmental issues, easements, construction and development, finance, and landlord tenant matters.

Mr. Kramer is admitted to practice before all courts in the State of California, the United States Supreme Court and the United States Court of Military Appeals. Mr. Kramer has tried in excess of 200 cases. He has appeared on nationally televised programs regarding pre-trial procedure and trial strategy and has appeared as a guest lecturer on topics ranging from constitutional law to trial practice, and Mr. Kramer frequently lectures on a broad spectrum of various legal and business issues.

Mr. Kramer also serves as a Judge Pro Tem for the Los Angeles Superior Court and as a Mediator.

Mr. Kramer is also a past president of the Los Angeles West Inns of Court, a national organization dedicated to bringing professionalism and civility back into the legal profession. He also serves on numerous Boards of Directors and serves as an officer in many companies. For more information call (818) 224-3900 or visit http://kramer-kaslow.com

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Kramer and Kaslow: Utah Lawsuit May Result in Less Foreclosures

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Calabasas, CA (PRWEB) June 13, 2011

Philip Kramer of the Law Offices of Kramer and Kaslow announced that the case of Corey v. Countrywide Bank FSB et al (Case number: 2:2011cv00409) is being heard today in Utah District Court to determine whether or not MERS may be used as a beneficiary in Utah foreclosure cases.

Judge Dee Benson is presiding, and according to court documents, he has told the defendants, Bank of America (BAC) and ReconTrust (Parr Brown), that he believes, the existing federal court rulings (Rodeback, Burnett, etc.) in favor of MERS are bad law won by banks who have big-firm attorneys who are making legally unsound arguments and winning because the Plaintiffs Bar (homeowner-attorneys) have been outmatched by the bank attorneys, and have been making the wrong legal arguments. Benson also went on to state on the record that he believes, MERS and securitization play a big role the foreclosure mess we are in.

According to court documents, an attorney at the law firm representing the plaintiff in this case said that, while there are no guarantees as to Judge Bensons ruling, he has essentially invited us to lay out the proper arguments for why MERS is not the beneficiary of a mortgage and therefore lacks authority to perform the actions that only a beneficiary (the Lender) can do under a mortgage (including substituting Trustee ReconTrust and commencing non-judicial foreclosure proceedings on behalf of Bank of America).”

Consolidated plaintiff litigation attorney Philip Kramer, a senior partner at the firm of Kramer & Kaslow is watching the case closely. If the court rules that MERS is not a legal beneficiary, it strikes at the heart of many foreclosures. This may turn out to be a real turning point in the foreclosure crisis.

More of Philip Kramers comments on the case may be found at the Kramer and Kaslow blog.

ABOUT PHILIP KRAMER

PHILIP A. KRAMER is the senior partner of the Law Office of Kramer & Kaslow, in Calabasas, California. Kramer & Kaslow is Martindale Hubbell AV rated. Mr. Kramer is a perennial recipient of the prestigious Southern California Super Lawyer award.

Mr. Kramer received his undergraduate degree from Ohio State University and his Juris Doctorate from the Catholic University of America, in Washington, DC. His practice emphasizes commercial litigation and trial advocacy, with a concentration on business litigation, and real property matters. He has prosecuted and defended cases for over twenty five years.

Mr. Kramer is a licensed real estate broker and has spent considerable time providing legal services in connection with real estate issues relating to loan modification and loss mitigation, land use and zoning, environmental issues, easements, construction and development, finance, and landlord tenant matters.

Mr. Kramer is admitted to practice before all courts in the State of California, the United States Supreme Court and the United States Court of Military Appeals. Mr. Kramer has tried in excess of 200 cases. He has appeared on nationally televised programs regarding pre-trial procedure and trial strategy and has appeared as a guest lecturer on topics ranging from constitutional law to trial practice, and Mr. Kramer frequently lectures on a broad spectrum of various legal and business issues.

Mr. Kramer also serves as a Judge Pro Tem for the Los Angeles Superior Court and as a Mediator.

Mr. Kramer is also a past president of the Los Angeles West Inns of Court, a national organization dedicated to bringing professionalism and civility back into the legal profession. He also serves on numerous Boards of Directors and serves as an officer in many companies. For more information call (818) 224-3900 or visit http://kramer-kaslow.com.

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Law Offices of Kramer and Kaslow: New York Bank Investigation Could Leave Banks Facing Charges

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Calabasas, CA (PRWEB) June 13, 2011

The Law Offices of Kramer and Kaslow is weighing in on a new report from the New York Times that claims that the New York attorney general is investigating large banks for alleged wrongdoing. According to the May 16 New York Times article, The New York attorney general has requested information and documents in recent weeks from three major Wall Street banks about their mortgage securities operations during the credit boom, indicating the existence of a new investigation into practices that contributed to billions in mortgage losses.

Recently elected New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman declined to comment but according to people briefed on the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly, Eric T. Schneidermans office have also requested meetings with representatives from Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

The article also spoke with Daniel C. Richman, a professor of law at Columbia. Part of what prosecutors have the advantage of doing right now, here as elsewhere, is watching the civil suits play out as different parties fight over who bears the loss, said Richman. Thats a very productive source of information.

Noted attorney Philip Kramer, senior partner at the law firm of Kramer & Kaslow whose consolidated litigation plaintiffs have been suing banks for their foreclosure practices agrees with Richman, A lot of wrongdoing has been uncovered in civil cases. What is particularly interesting about the New York Attorney Generals approach is that they seem to have picked up on some of the issues we have used in our suits: fraud and greed in the securitization process being key elements.

More of Philip Kramers comments can be found at the Law Offices of Kramer and Kaslow blog.

ABOUT PHILIP KRAMER

PHILIP A. KRAMER is the senior partner of the Law Office of Kramer & Kaslow, in Calabasas, California. Kramer & Kaslow is Martindale Hubbell AV rated. Mr. Kramer is a perennial recipient of the prestigious Southern California Super Lawyer award.

Mr. Kramer received his undergraduate degree from Ohio State University and his Juris Doctorate from the Catholic University of America, in Washington, DC. His practice emphasizes commercial litigation and trial advocacy, with a concentration on business litigation, and real property matters. He has prosecuted and defended cases for over twenty five years.

Mr. Kramer is a licensed real estate broker and has spent considerable time providing legal services in connection with real estate issues relating to loan modification and loss mitigation, land use and zoning, environmental issues, easements, construction and development, finance, and landlord tenant matters.

Mr. Kramer is admitted to practice before all courts in the State of California, the United States Supreme Court and the United States Court of Military Appeals. Mr. Kramer has tried in excess of 200 cases. He has appeared on nationally televised programs regarding pre-trial procedure and trial strategy and has appeared as a guest lecturer on topics ranging from constitutional law to trial practice, and Mr. Kramer frequently lectures on a broad spectrum of various legal and business issues.

Mr. Kramer also serves as a Judge Pro Tem for the Los Angeles Superior Court and as a Mediator.

Mr. Kramer is also a past president of the Los Angeles West Inns of Court, a national organization dedicated to bringing professionalism and civility back into the legal profession. He also serves on numerous Boards of Directors and serves as an officer in many companies. For more information call (818) 224-3900 or visit http://kramer-kaslow.com

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Related Securitization Press Releases

Kramer and Kaslow: Bank Probes Uncover Questionable Practices on Foreclosures

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Calabasas, California (PRWEB) June 14, 2011

Attorney Philip A. Kramer, senior partner of the Kramer & Kaslow law firm which is conducting consolidated plaintiff litigation lawsuits on behalf of hundreds of homeowners, remarked on a recent expose of bank probes by the news site Propublica.

Propublica is really doing a public service with their investigations,” said Philip Kramer. “I represent hundreds of clients who have been wronged by the banks. We have charged fraud, and conspiracy, calumny and deception, from top to bottom. There is a lot of malfeasance going on, and other than our civil suits, there has been little or no judicial action. Something has to be done and I am hopeful that Propublicas investigations may help start that process.

Propublica journalist Marian Wang writes in a recent article, As we and many others have noted, no top banking executives have been successfully prosecuted in connection with the financial crisis: not for making the bad loans that fed the mortgage machine, not for lying about the quality of the mortgages, and not for foreclosing improperly when homeowners struggled to make loan payments. But there have been many investigations. Some are still pending, others seem to have fallen by the wayside. Heres our overview of what the banks have been accused of doing at each stage of the mortgage machine.

Propublica compares the bad foreclosure process to a machine and argues that the first step is risky lending and underwriting. Philip Kramer agrees. “If you look at any of the cases we filed, for example, take a look at: Maxam v. Bank Of America (case No: 30-2011-00450819-CU-MT-CXC), youll see that we already know a great deal about the banks misbehavior. The question is, When will judicial and regulatory bodies catch on?

Propublica breaks down the bank practices foreclosure crisis into five areas:

1)