Attorney Warns of More Litigation

The first lesson from the Ameriquest Mortgage settlement the subprime industry needs to heed is to "get your hard hats on because there will be more of these things."That was the advice John L. Culhane Jr., an attorney with the firm Ballard Spahr, gave attendees at the SourceMedia Subprime Symposium in Las Vegas. Ameriquest wasn't the first settlement of its kind, and it will not be the last, he said. Furthermore, individual state attorney generals will use the settlement to challenge the practices of other lenders. There are other investigations going on, including one of a lender he represents that has been going on for four years. It is a much smaller action than Ameriquest and a settlement is imminent in that case. The process is skewed in favor of the state attorneys general and they are going to continue to use it, Mr. Culhane said.