A consumer protection clinic has been started by the California mortgage settlement monitor at the UC Irvine School of Law to help ensure state homeowners receive the proper mortgage relief as promised from the nation’s five largest servicers.
Katherine Porter, a law professor at the university, will be the co-teacher of the program. As part of the program, attorneys and law students will ensure that the banks are complying to their obligations in the AG settlement by providing the proper assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure who were affected by the robo-signing scandal and any other alleged legal improprieties.
Student tasks include helping troubled homeowners obtain loan modifications, develop and implement compliance plans to monitor banks, communicate with the public, homeowners and legal advocates about the settlement, prepare public records on compliance and provide students with opportunities to work directly with advocates, homeowners, government lawyers and bank representatives.
The national mortgage settlement obligates the five servicers to deliver as much as $18 billion of homeowner and borrower benefits in California. The servicers have three years to perform their obligations under the settlement.
“This is a truly unprecedented development, not only the size and nature of the settlement and monitoring process, but also the involvement of law students in helping the Attorney General aid troubled consumers,” Porter said. “There is no other legal clinic like this in the country in terms of offering multiple perspectives on consumer law. It will prepare UCI law students for sophisticated careers in law and policy—all while helping distressed homeowners.”
