Chapman and Cutler LLP provides specialized consumer finance litigation representation to its lender and servicer clients operating in the highly regulated consumer financial services arena. This includes defense of class action and individual claims alleging violations of the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act (HOEPA), Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), and various state consumer fraud and anti-predatory lending laws.
Our in-depth understanding of consumer-related statutes, combined with our proven litigation strategies and skills, has enabled practice group attorneys to successfully defend clients in numerous consumer class action cases.
The firm's clients include originating lenders, assignees, servicers and trustees of securitized portfolios involving both mortgage loan and auto finance transactions.
Representative Transactions
- Successfully represented mortgage lender in foreclosure matter where the Illinois Appellate Court held that three year limit for TILA rescission claims applies even when claim is brought defensively in response to a foreclosure. (Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., as Trustee v. Terry, March 2010)
- Chapman and Cutler successfully defended the U.S. Bank National Association v. Clark case before the Illinois Supreme Court. In this landmark decision, the Court agreed with our position that the Illinois Interest Act's limitation on lender's interest, charges and fees is preempted by federal law (i.e., Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act, also known as DIDMCA) and further that a portion of the Interest Act had been implicitly repealed.
- We have defended creditors, both mortgage lenders and auto financers, in numerous Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) suits involving prescreened firm offers of credit, claims of identity theft, divorce decree disputes and federal preemption of state collection laws.• We obtained a favorable ruling from the Illinois Supreme Court for a national mortgage lender in a class action in which borrowers alleged the lender engaged in the unauthorized practice of law by charging a document preparation fee.
- We obtained a favorable ruling from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirming summary judgment for two national mortgage lenders in a case concerning prepayment penalties and the scope of federal preemption for state-chartered lenders under the Alternative Mortgage Transaction Parity Act (Parity Act).
- We successfully defended a national mortgage lender in a consumer finance class action involving allegation of improper interest calculation potentially involving damages of up to $40 million.
- Our practice group was retained to help a national mortgage lender defend putative class action litigation involving an issue of first impression regarding HOEPA's (Section 32) disclosure requirements for mortgage loans with variable monthly payment schedules.
- Chapman and Cutler successfully obtained a dismissal of action brought against a national mortgage lender in which the plaintiff had argued for expansion of the "points and fees" definition of mortgage loans covered by HOEPA.
- Our firm defended an automobile loan assignee in a question of first impression regarding conflict between the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act and the Illinois Motor Vehicle Retail Installment Sales Act.
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