Consumer Fraud

Consumers have rights. Financial institutions, telecommunication companies, apartment companies, credit bureaus, mortgage servicing companies, and other companies that provide consumer services have a legal obligation to abide by the contractual agreements they make with their customers. Companies must also follow state and federal laws that prohibit predatory, deceptive, and unscrupulous business practices.

Private companies routinely violate consumer rights. Unsure of their legal options and uncertain of where to turn for help, many consumers simply accept unfair treatment. But consumers have the right to fight back.

Milberg’s Consumer Fraud Practice Group focuses on protecting those whose consumer rights have been violated by practices that include fraud or truth-in lending, predatory and discriminatory lending, improperly charged fees, illegal credit reporting practices, and invasion of privacy.

Our attorneys have led lawsuits nationwide, returning billions of dollars to consumers and prompting meaningful changes in how companies treat their customers. Together with our Defective Products practice, Milberg enforces consumer rights by prosecuting a wide variety of abusive practices at the hands of creditors and services providers.

Focus Areas of Milberg’s Consumer Fraud Practice Group

Fraud or Truth In Lending

When creditors make loans to consumers, they are required by the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) to make certain written disclosures about important credit terms. TILA also imposes advertising requirements on lenders. These provisions are intended to protect borrowers from unfair and predatory lending practices.

Milberg’s Truth In Lending Practice Group attorneys represent borrowers wronged by lenders and creditors who have violated consumer protection rules set forth by TILA.

Predatory Lending & Reverse Redlining

Milberg’s Predatory Lending & Reverse Redlining Practice Group protects individuals, organizations, and municipalities against discriminatory and illegal lending practices by some of the world’s largest financial institutions.

This includes borrowers who are harmed, fraudulently deceived, or discriminated against by their lenders.

Mortgage Foreclosure and Servicing

Countless homeowners have been foreclosed on unnecessarily or illegally. Milberg protects homeowners from foreclosure and unfair or deceptive mortgage servicing practices.

Our attorneys recently reached a $7 million dollar settlement with Seterus related to debt-collection letters that were sent to homeowners. Our lawsuit alleged that Seterus, which services loans owned by Fannie Mae, unlawfully threatened foreclosure in their notice of final default letter, in violation of the federal Fair Debt collection Practices Act (FDCPA).

Milberg also represented consumer borrowers who were victimized by the loan modification process. Our attorneys sued CitiMortgage on behalf of consumers for failing to convert TPPs (trial period plans) to permanent modifications under the Home Affordable Modification Program.

Eviction Fees

The eviction process triggers expenses such as attorneys’ fees and court fees. But landlords may be violating state rental laws when they pass these eviction fees on to their tenants.

Milberg has filed more than a dozen class action lawsuits claiming that landlords are not within their rights to charge eviction fees to tenants. Several of these have already settled, resulting in significant compensation to tenants and former tenants. Individual payments for those who paid eviction fees have ranged from $175 up to $1,225.

Bank Overdraft Fees

Banks and credit unions routinely engage in overdraft practices. While the average overdraft fee may only amount to $30-$40, these fees are a major source of profit to financial institutions. Although overdraft revenues have declined in recent years, banks collected nearly $10 billion in fees from overdraft and insufficient funds in 2022 alone.

Overdraft fees are not illegal, but banks and credit unions have been accused of using deceptive practices—such as misrepresenting account balances, processing transactions out of order, and continuously allowing customers with insufficient funds to overcharge their accounts—to charge customers excessive overdraft fees. Since the Overdraft Protection Act of 2021, financial institutions can only charge overdraft fees to customers who have opted-in to overdraft coverage.

Milberg attorneys served as Class Counsel in a class action lawsuit that accused Members 1st Federal Credit Union of charging improper overdraft fees to its customers on certain debit card transactions. The case resulted in a $910,000 class action settlement. Milberg is also engaged in litigation against Nationstar Mortgage for improperly withdrawing mortgage funds from customer accounts.

Overcharging of Notary Services

States set statutory limits on how much notaries public may charge for notarization services. Milberg currently has cases against UPS in New Jersey and Illinois for allegedly charging illegally high notary fees.

• Learn more about the Illinois case here.
• Learn more about the New Jersey case here.

FCRA Cases

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is a federal law that protects consumers from unfair penalties resulting from inaccurate credit, background, and consumer reporting, as well as from unauthorized credit report requests. Under the FCRA, credit reporting agencies Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion are responsible for making sure that consumer credit reports are accurate and only shared with authorized parties for permissible purposes.

Considering credit reporting may directly affect an individual’s ability to secure employment, housing, loans, and more, accurate reporting and privacy are crucial.

Credit reporting agencies, creditors, collectors, employers, and other parties that violate the FCRA may be subject to legal action, including class action lawsuits. Our attorneys have successfully obtained compensation for thousands of FCRA class action plaintiffs nationwide.

• Learn more about common FCRA violations here.

TCPA

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) protects consumers from unsolicited phone calls and text messages. The TCPA gives consumers the right to sue individuals, retailers, and marketers that contact them via phone without their consent and that fail to abide by do-not-call requests.

Failure to comply with the TCPA can provide for compensation between $500 and $1,500 per violation. Companies often utilize robo-calls and robo-texts to reach thousands or millions of consumers, making TCPA cases prime candidates for class action lawsuits.

Additional Areas of Consumer Fraud

In addition to the above cases, Milberg’s consumer protection attorneys also handle cases that involve:

• Bank interest rates
• Improper fees charged by cable companies and other telecommunications companies
• Impact and capacity fees
• Utility companies
• Building/construction defects
• Social media companies

Large companies have repeatedly proven that they can’t always be counted on to do right by their customers. In many instances, consumers must take the fight to corporations and demand what the law entitles them to. Milberg uses its strength to help clients fight back against unfair, illegal, and discriminatory consumer practices.

Milberg built its name and reputation by fighting for victims of some of the most infamous corporate scandals. We pioneered federal class action litigation and, in doing so, created a new era of corporate accountability. Since 1965, the firm has established itself as one of the most successful consumer litigation law firms in the country, with over $50 billion in verdicts and settlements.