Lender Processing Services (LPS) is pushing back against a deceptive trade practices suit initiated by Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto.
The company is asking a Clark County court to dismiss the AG’s case, which accuses LPS and its DocX and LPS Default Solutions Inc. units of document execution fraud, deceptive statements, failure to control foreclosure attorneys and misrepresentations on fees and services.
LPS claims the acts alleged by the AG are not actionable under local law and claims the accusations “are a collection of suppositions, legal conclusions and inflammatory labels that entirely fail to link the alleged conduct with any transaction in this state that could rise to a claim under Chapter 598.”
Chapter 598 is Nevada’s list of deceptive trade practices prohibited by the state.
Part of the LPS defense is based on the argument that the deceptive trade practices act is limited to the sale of goods and services and the deceptive foreclosure documentation allegations do not support the idea that LPS was engaged in the sale of actual goods and services.
“The complaint makes no differentiation between the separately organized corporate entities, does not plead violations of the act with any particularity, relies solely upon inflammatory labels such as ‘robo-signing’ and ‘surrogate signing,’ all combined with the patently incorrect legal conclusion that such activities constitute forgery,” according to LPS.
According to the February issue of HousingWire magazine, Masto’s office has active criminal litigation files open against 16 loan modification companies in Clark County. In the past year, the mortgage fraud unit obtained indictments against 12 mortgage fraud defendants, totaling nearly 450 felonies. It’s obtained convictions against 18 defendants to date, resulting in 23 felony convictions, six gross misdemeanor convictions and 13 misdemeanor convictions for mortgage fraud-related crimes.
“My office is small, but we are mighty,” Masto tells HousingWire reporter Justin T. Hilley in an exclusive interview. “We are going to strategically target and go after those individuals engaging in those various types of fraud, hold them accountable, protect the integrity of the process and bring remedies and relief to the homeowners of our state. That’s what we’re talking about here.”
Write to Kerri Panchuk.
