How many discrimination cases have been filed against appraisers? What’s really happening in the courts and in investigations with respect to alleged bias? Those are questions I cover in my presentations and classes for appraisers. But, I will tell you here that the most significant pending case about alleged appraisal Read more…
Believe it or not, cases are still being litigated in relation to events during the mortgage meltdown years. After nearly seven years of litigation, a settlement has been reached in the borrower class action filed in 2013 regarding appraisals managed by defendant LandSafe Appraisal Services between January 1, 2003 and Read more…
A consumer class action complaint has been filed against a lender and its AMC relating to the subject matter of a prior CFPB investigation and settlement. Last August, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had taken action against Amerisave Mortgage Corporation, its affiliated AMC Novo Appraisal Management Company, and one Read more…
Update note 8/14/12: this case, particularly the plaintiffs’ attempt to create a defendant class of appraisers, presents significant new liability issues for appraisal management and appraisers. I will address the liability issues in this case and in other current AMC litigation (including the FDIC’s actions against two national AMCs) in Read more…
One case that cannot be ignored on something called the Appraiser Law Blog is Gibson, et al. v. Credit Suisse, Cushman & Wakefield, et al. Even though the plaintiffs’ claims in my view just amount to buyer’s remorse following a deflated real estate price bubble, the case needs to be Read more…
In terms of alleged damages, the biggest case pending against any appraisal firm in the United States — actually, I feel safe writing the biggest case ever — is the lawsuit filed in federal court in Idaho by a group of property owners in four luxury developments in Idaho, Montana, Read more…
This post was updated on April 13, 2011 to reflect a subsequent order by Judge Lodge accepting and rejecting certain of the magistrate judge’s recommendations. See note at the bottom for the update. When I first saw the complaint filed by the plaintiffs in this lawsuit in federal court in Read more…
This is the first of a series of articles that will discuss valuation liability issues which either do not stem from true appraisals or affect parties besides appraisers. Appraisers are by no means the only parties targeted for valuation liability claims. While appraisers are frequent targets in connection with their Read more…
On March 31, 2010, Judge Virginia Phillips in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California dismissed eight homeowner/borrower class actions against home builders and their affiliated mortgage companies. Filed on the same day by the same group of law firms, the eight lawsuits alleged that the builders Read more…