Well, now it's time for our daily Bloomberg Law Brief, exploring legal issues in the news and today, Bloomberg LA host Jun Grosso and Michael Best discuss a lawsuit against mortgage giant Ackwin for improper handling of mortgages bought from banks in the fall out of two thousand and eight financial crisis. They speak with Robert Hawkeett, a professor at
Cornell University Law School. Bob, you know, this isn't the first time the CFPB has gone after Akwin, and went after them in two thousand thirteen over what sounds like very similar kinds of allegations of mismanagement of accounts. How is it that this didn't get cleared up when that when the CFPB went after them the first time? Well, I mean that that is uh sixty four thousand dollar question, right.
I mean, one would have thought that Akwin would have been put on notice ban uh and that they would have gotten their act together. Um. I think there are a couple of possible explanations. They're sort of good faith. I mean, there are sort of charitable explanation possible. I'm sorry, there are some possible explanations that are sort of charitable and others that are less. So let's start with the charitable.
The charitable explanation might be that they said that, yeah, we'll get our act together, we'll sort of get back on the straight arrow, will we'll fix these problems, and that they really tried um, but that they underestimated the magnitude of the problem and so didn't succeed in sort
of fully handling it. Another possibility is that they were in fact acting to correct the problems that the CFPB notified them about, but that in the meanwhile, they kept taking on additional servicing rights so that the full portfolio and that they were dealing with continued to grow. So the CFPB, the State of Florida, and twenty one other state agencies are suing them or issuing cease and decease desist orders against the company. Yeah, it has said it
will vigorously defend itself. What is its defense? I really, I frankly can't imagine what it could be. I really can't. I'm very I mean, I'm surprised by this particular attitude. I would have thought that they would have been exhibiting some kind of contrition um, some sort of plea to the effect that well, you know, please, you know, work with us here where we really are trying. We're doing
our best. But but the problem is that the thing has you know, that the portfolio has grown so rapidly that even as we are making improvements, were still having trouble keeping up. That would have struck me as the
right sort of tone to take. Instead by striking a defiant tone and saying, oh, this is just a CFPB sort of getting out of control, I think it's an amazingly stupid strategy to tell you the truth, because when you've got half of the states of the Union making the same claim, trying to scapegoat the CFPB just isn't gonna It's not gonna fly, right, Nobody's going to buy that. I can't see what kind of defense they could possibly offer that would be consistent, at least with a defiant
tone that they're striking. And that's Robert Hawkeet, a professor at Cornell University Law School, speaking with Bloomberg Law host and Crosso. You can listen to Bloomberg Law Wait days at one pm Wall Street Time here on Bloomberg Radio Now.
Among the top legal stories from Bloomberg Law, drivers fort Left have accused Uber of illegally tracking their whereabouts using spywear was according to a complaint filed in San Francisco Federal court that says Uber wanted to identified drivers who worked for both companies so they could be targeted with incentives to primarily work for Uber. Folks for Uber had no comment. United Airlines is another passenger problem to deal with.
A woman claimed she was forced out of her business class seat during a flight from Newark to London and escorted to the back of the plane without an explanation. She wants a hundred fifty thousand dollars in punitive damages. United says it's reviewing the complaint. French drugmakers Center Fee is accusing Melon of trying to squash a rival to its EpiPen allergy treatment and aren't officially inflate the price of the drug. Sono Fias filed suit in federal court
in New Jersey. Melon is not commenting. And that's this morning's Bloomberg Lawbrary. If you can find more illegal news at Bloomberg Law dot com and Bloomberg BNA dot com. Attorneys will find exceptional legal research and business development tools there as well. Visit Bloomberg law dot com and Bloomberg BNA dot com for more information.