State reaches $1.5 million ‘robo signing’ settlement

Listen to this article

One of the biggest U.S. mortgage processing companies has agreed to pay $121 million, including $1,505,315 to Wisconsin, to resolve states’ claims that it wrongfully foreclosed on homeowners who should have been allowed to stay in their homes.

The settlement agreements between Lender Processing Services Inc., based in Jacksonville, Fla., and 46 states and the District of Columbia were announced Thursday.

They follow similar agreements totaling $6 million that Lender Processing signed previously with Colorado, Delaware and Missouri. The company says that leaves Nevada’s complaint as the only unresolved state case.

The state attorneys general, including Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, alleged that the company engaged in unlawful practices including “robo-signing,” in which it automatically signed off on foreclosures without properly reviewing documents.

Once the judgment is entered by the courts, LPS will undertake a review of documents executed during the period of Jan. 1, 2008, to Dec. 31, 2010, to determine what documents, if any, need to be re-executed or corrected. If LPS is authorized to make the corrections, it will do so and will make periodic reports to the attorneys general of the status of its review and/or modification of documents, according to a news release from Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen.

The lawsuit and proposed consent judgment were filed Thursday in Dane County Circuit Court. The state was represented by Assistant Attorney General Lara Sutherlin.

The Associated Press also contributed to this report.