lawyers resign over mortgage scam
Posted by admin on November 12th, 2009
October 22, 2009
LEGAL ETHICS & PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY
Lawyers Resign Over Mortgage Scam
By Don J. DeBenedictis
Daily Journal Staff Writer
SANTA ANA – The State Bar announced Wednesday that four Southern California lawyers accused of cheating homeowners seeking mortgage modifications have given up their bar licenses, while three more lawyers are close to losing theirs.
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You DO have a voice. Your opinion DOES count.
PLEASE SPEAK UP! If you are facing questionable terms or actions by a real estate agent/broker, an attorney or your mortgage lender, please consider filing a report for the appropriate agency in your state. In Northern California, the following are applicable: Golden Gate Better Business Bureau: Note that often you will have to file complaints with the BBB in the city wherein the person is doing business; i.e., a lender’s home office address. State Bar of California: Instructions for Filing a Complaint California Department of Real Estate (also contains news on foreclosure and loan modifications). A word of caution to anyone with a mortgage through Wells Fargo Bank. That bank has more complaint items on a Google search than any bank in the nation and it is not the largest bank in the nation (Bank of America is, I believe). SEARCH TERMS:
For comparison:
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The bar made the announcement in its fourth press release in as many months about its efforts to protect consumers from lawyers who take money from homeowners in trouble but then do little or nothing to help stave off foreclosures.
In a highly unusual move criticized by defense attorneys, the bar last month named 16 lawyers it has under investigation for loan-modification scams. Usually, the bar only can identify lawyers in trouble after it has filed formal charges.
In response to the huge number of consumer complaints, the State Bar set up a special task force of five lawyers and eight investigators in its Los Angeles office to look into mortgage modification scams, according to its chief, Suzan Anderson. The task force currently is looking into 738 complaints involving about 200 lawyers, according to Wednesday’s press statement.
Those lawyers who resigned recently are Cameron Edwards, 29, of the Alliance Law Center in San Diego; Ronald Rodis, 45, of Rodis Law Group and America’s Law Group in Newport Beach; and Jeffrey Nemerofsky, 51, of U.S. Advocacy Law Group and U.S. Financial Products, in Laguna Niguel.
The fourth lawyer, James Parsa, 44, “has advertised heavily throughout California for the past several months, offering to help homeowners facing foreclosure,” according to the bar. But Parsa resigned when the bar discovered that he had not reported to the bar his two misdemeanors convictions for sex with an underage girl in 2001.
Other lawyers identified in the bar’s latest news release include Christopher L. Diener, 41, of the Diener Law Group and Home Relief Services in Irvine. The State Bar put Diener on inactive status involuntarily on Oct. 9. He is also being sued by the state attorney general’s office in Orange County Superior Court for allegedly bilking thousands of homeowners out of thousands of dollars each. People v. Home Relief Services, 30-2009-00125949-CU-MC-CJC (Orange Super., filed July 13, 2009)
The bar said it also is seeking to force two more lawyers into inactive status, Paul Lucas, 48, of Lucas Law Center in Aliso Viejo, and Sean Rutledge, 34, of United Law Group in Irvine.
Rutledge is scheduled for a hearing in the State Bar Court in Los Angeles on Friday, but he was recently injured in a serious motorcycle accident, according a colleague and a State Bar prosecutor.
None of the lawyers named in the bar’s release could be reached Wednesday.
However, Rodis on Wednesday referred questions to an attorney, Nancy C. Eng of Darling & Risbrough in Los Angeles, who represents Rodis in a suit by the FTC. Eng would not discuss her client or ongoing litigation.
Paul J. Lucas of Aliso Viejo, did speak earlier in the week.
Besides action from the State Bar, Lucas, 48, founder of Lucas Law Center, is being sued by the Federal Trade Commission. In interviews Monday and Tuesday, Lucas said that his company obtained mortgage modifications for close to 500 homeowners.
Accusations against him are “heavy-handed and politically motivated,” Lucas said. “You can’t beat them,” he added about the FTC.
Tags: foreclosure, lawyers mortgage scam
November 12th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
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