DALLAS, April 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Foreclosure cases dominated quarterly mortgage litigation activity and show no sign of relenting -- helping to push the Mortgage Litigation Index to an all-time high. Among categories to show the worst deterioration were criminal, servicing and mortgage fraud. But investor actions slowed.
A total of 244 cases were tracked in Mortgage Daily's fourth-quarter 2011 Mortgage Litigation Index -- the highest number since the index's 2007 launch. The report provides an anecdotal account of activity on mortgage-related legal actions deemed important to mortgage firms by Mortgage Daily's editorial staff.
Case count jumped from 218 in the third quarter and 151 in the fourth-quarter 2010.
Accompanying the latest index is a white paper prepared by Christopher Willis, a partner at Ballard Spahr LLP.
An upcoming free webinar about the report is expected to be announced shortly.
"Unfortunately, the phenomena that led to the surge in litigation in the fourth quarter of 2011 have only intensified in 2012, suggesting that we are unlikely to see a significant decline in litigation in the near term," Willis said in the analysis.
Helping to lift activity were criminal cases, which climbed to 57 from the third quarter's 34.
Activity on litigation related to mortgage servicing grew to 70 cases from 51.
Mortgage fraud cases, those typically involving insiders at mortgage firms or a foreclosure-rescue scheme, increased to 23 from just five during the previous quarter.
Meanwhile, cases related to fees leapt to 17 from the prior period's two.
Another category with a big increase was "title," which expanded to 46 cases from 31.
The following table compares the top fourth-quarter categories with the third quarter.
| Category |
Q1 2011 |
Q3 2011 |
| Total |
244 |
218 |
| Foreclosures |
99 |
90 |
| Servicing |
70 |
51 |
| Investor |
62 |
82 |
| Criminal |
57 |
34 |
| Title |
46 |
31 |
Foreclosure litigation was the biggest category in the latest report with activity tracked on 99 cases.
"Many of the categories showing a high number of cases in the final quarter of 2011 are ones exempted from the national multi-state mortgage servicing settlement," Willis stated.
Full 32-page report available at:
http://www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationIndex4Q040912.asp?spcode=pr
White paper available at:
http://www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationIndexWhitePaper040912.asp?spcode=pr
Media request complimentary report from [email protected].
Mortgage Litigation news:
http://www.mortgagedaily.com/legal.asp?spcode=pr
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SOURCE MortgageDaily.com
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