Construction Trades Unions and Lawyers Need to Be More Active than Ever to Promote and Enforce Fair Contracting and Prevailing Wage Law

The shift in leadership in the Ohio Governor’s Office and the Ohio House of Representatives will result in priority changes in state government that will shift the responsibility from state government  back to employees, labor unions their  lawyers to enforce prevailing wage law and to promote fair contracting practices in Ohio.

Governor Kasich wants to repeal laws that protect workers from having wages stolen by their employers.

Even before taking office Governor Kasich has declared his opposition to Ohio’s Prevailing Wage Law.

Fortunately, it appears unlikely that there are enough votes in the legislature to repeal Ohio’s law requiring that construction workers on state and local construction jobs be paid the prevailing rate of pay or to repeal Ohio’s voter enacted minimum wage.  However  it is reasonable to expect that the massive budget deficit in State Government will provide the pretext to dramatically reduce the already limited resources being devoted to the enforcement of laws designed to provide for fair wages for Ohio Workers.

Over the next four years it appears that the responsibility for protecting the wage rights of workers will shift to the Construction Trade Unions, who have standing to enforce prevailing wage laws and the private bar who can bring actions to enforce both the prevailing wage , minimum wage and overtime laws that provide a safety net to working class ohioans.

Strategies to protect workers include:

Working with Local Governments to enact Fair Contracting Ordinances that make sure that local contractors pay workers the correct wages, maintain strong safety and environmental practices (including providing worker’s compensation coverage to workers) pay taxes, hire Ohio Workers.

Working with Unions to File Prevailing Wage Lawsuits and “Interested Parties” under Ohio law.

Opening up access to lawyers for low wage workers who have been victims of wage theft.

Educating workers about their right to  minimum and prevailing wages and overtime pay over 40 hours of work.

More information about efforts to protect workers in Ohio’s new political environment can be found at:

Stop Wage Theft Now

or

Law Office of Marc Dann Co. LPA

Lerner Sampson Lawsuit

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Attorneys Marc Dann and James Douglass to file class action suit against Lerner, Sampson &Rothfuss for the continual filing of frivolous foreclosures

Several wronged homeowners have come together with the help of attorneys Marc Dann and James Douglass in order to file a class action lawsuit against law firm Lerner, Sampson & Rothfuss (LS&R), which routinely files un-provable foreclosure suits through the use of manufactured and incomplete documentation.

Tamara and Phillip Turner, Mary Sweeney, and a third couple all had foreclosure suits filed against them by LS&R, on behalf of various clients, dismissed after the court found that LS&R’s clients did not have standing to file the suits.  Despite the final victories, the Turners, Ms. Sweeney and the third plaintiff all were forced to hire lawyers to defend themselves, incurring substantial legal fees.  The plaintiffs and others who were sued by Lerner Sampson representing lenders suffered significant emotional distress and at least one formally moved out of their home, even though the foreclosure complaints were dismissed.

Dann, Douglass and these homeowners believe there are hundreds, if not thousands, of other Ohioans, who lack the ability to secure counsel, that have vacated and lost their homes and filed for bankruptcy because a frivolous foreclosure has been filed against them.

“We found out that Lerner Sampson & Rothfuss has filed an average of 4,500 foreclosures a year for the last 5 years in Cuyahoga County alone,” said Douglass.  “How often do they get away with filing an illegitimate foreclosure because the homeowner cannot or does not know to defend his or herself?”

In the cases filed against the Turners, Ms. Sweeney and the third plaintiff, LS&R falsely claimed its client was the holder of the mortgage promissory note, which is a prerequisite to being able to file a foreclosure.  Dann and Douglass uncovered that it is common LS&R practice to create and execute documentation on behalf of Mortgage Electronic Filing Systems, Inc (MERS) to make it appear that their client is in possession of the needed mortgage promissory note.

LS&R employee Shellie Hill admitted, in a deposition taken by Douglass, that she signed documents as Assistant and Vice President of MERS though she is actually a LS&R employee with no real employment responsibilities to MERS and had never spoken to or received direction from anyone at MERS.

“We would never have known that Lerner, Sampson & Rothfuss didn’t have a right to try to foreclose on our home if we had not had good legal counsel,” said Phillip Turner.  “We were already packing to move in with family when Jim (Douglass), who I know from the community, offered to take a look at our case.”

The lawsuit will ask that the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas declare that LS&R is in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, has slandered the creditworthiness of individuals is has frivolously filed foreclosures against and has defamed these individuals.  The lawsuit further seeks to recover actual economic and noneconomic damages caused by LS&R’s unfair, deceptive and unconscionable practices.

“The State of Ohio and Cleveland, in particular, has suffered tremendous economic and social consequences to the foreclosure crisis that swept the nation starting in 2006,” said Dann.  “Foreclosure mills like LS&R contribute greatly to the needless destruction of our community and of individual lives.”

 

Judges Start to Call Bluff of Foreclosure Mill Lawyers

From the New York Times

Lawyers for Foreclosing Banks Should be Held Accountable for Telling the Truth

Today, Jim Douglass and I filed suit against Ohio’s largest foreclosure mill, Lerner Sampson and Rothfuss on behalf of several home owners. The goal of the class action lawsuit is to seek damages for the thousands of Ohio homeowners who have had foreclosures filed against them by entities that didn’t have the right to foreclose.

The suit alleges that filing lawsuits on behalf of banks and investors who do not actually hold the notes or mortgages that are the subject of the lawsuit is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practice Act, Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act and constitutes abuse of process. We have also alleged that Lerner Sampson and its staff members created and signed  assignments, endorsements and affidavits without having actual knowledge of the facts contained in those documents.

Click Here to see the complaint: class action complaint

The Cuyahoga County County Common Pleas Judges have recently enacted much stricter requirements for proof when lawyers like Lerner Sampson are seeking a judgment in a foreclosure case.

Our suit seeks justice for the thousands of homeowners who lost their homes, had their credit destroyed and suffered incredible emotional distress over that past several years.