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Countrywide Predatory Lending

Date Started: October 15, 2008

Hagens Berman is investigating the following allegations of predatory lending practices by Countrywide and its in-house and affiliated mortgage brokers.

1. Borrowers have indicated to us that Countrywide and brokers acting on its behalf used agressive marketing and bait-and-switch tactics in closing purchase loans and refinancings. Borrowers were given initial disclosures and told that they would get one type of loan (usually a fixed-rate loan), but when they showed up at the closing, they were presented with a different loan (usually a 2-3 yr fixed/float loan or an Option ARM loan). If you were the victim of bait-and-switch tactics by Countrywide or an affiliated mortgage broker, please contact us.

2. Borrowers have indicated to us that they were pressured by Countrywide to refinance variable rate mortgages into fixed-rate mortgages before rate increases would take effect. Borrowers were told that applicable prepayment penalties would be waived, or were not informed that their prior loans had prepayment penalty clauses. The prepayment penalties were then added to the amount borrowed in their refinanced loan and this was not disclosed to borrowers until on or after the loan signing date. If you paid a prepayment penalty in order to refinance an existing Countrywide loan with a new Countrywide loan, please contact us.

3. Borrowers have indicated to us that Countrywide provided deceptive disclosures and information concerning Option ARM loans and aggresively marketed such loans as ideal for borrowers. Borrowers were then saddled with increasing payments and negatively amortized loans that increased the amount they owed to Countrywide each month. If you have an Option ARM loan from Countrywide and your payments or amount owed have increased, please contact us.

4. If you believe that you have been treated unfairly by Countrywide in any other manner, please feel free to contact us about your specific concerns.

In order to evaluate whether and the extent to which you may have claims against Countrywide, we will need to review the documents that Countrywide or its affiliated mortgage broker provided to you during the loan process. This includes documents that you received at or near the time that you first applied for a loan and documents that you received when you signed for your loan at closing. In particular, we will need to see all Good Faith Estimates, TIL disclosures, your mortgage Note and any addenda and/or riders to your Note.

If you'd like to speak with an attorney regarding your circumstances please e-mail info@hbsslaw.com.