As mortgage lenders continue to shed staff, former employees are accusing them of bad behavior during last year's difficult market.
Dozens of loan officers and other staff have sued home lenders in federal court for allegedly failing to pay them overtime, and in some cases, minimum wages. Over two dozen suits in the past 12 months have accused firms including industry leaders of violating state and federal wage statutes, according to a review of court records by National Mortgage News.
The complaints include repercussions from a prolonged stretch of mass layoffs, which mortgage professionals also claim were handled poorly. While it's unclear if the new wave of lawsuits are coming at an outsized pace, a correlation with the market's decline is possible, according to one veteran industry attorney.
"Anytime you see a downturn in the economy affecting any industry lending or anything else for that matter, you do see a spike in these types of claims," said Ari Karen, partner and head of Litigation, Labor and Employment at Mitchell Sandler.
Sandler represents one mortgage firm in a still-pending wage lawsuit from a former loan officer. Some lenders have moved to settle lawsuits with individual plaintiffs, while the majority of lenders, such as Rocket Mortgage, have pledged to defend themselves from the complaints.
The lawsuits from LOs all accuse companies of violating the Fair Labor Standards Act, a Great Depression-era law mandating minimum wage and...
Kevin Sabet, CEO of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, discusses a class-action lawsuit against Chicago cannabis companies for allegedly marketing products with false medical benefits on 'America's New...