“California’s top law enforcement official accused JPMorgan Chase on Thursday of flooding the state’s courts with questionable lawsuits to collect overdue credit card debt.
The suit, filed in California Superior Court by the state’s attorney general, Kamala D. Harris, contends that JPMorgan, the nation’s largest bank, “committed debt collection abuses against tens of thousands of California consumers.”
For about three years, between January 2008 and April 2011, JPMorgan filed thousands of lawsuits each month to collect soured credit card debt, Ms. Harris said. On a single day, for example, JPMorgan filed 469 lawsuits, court records show.
As the bank plowed through the lawsuits, Ms. Harris said, JPMorgan took shortcuts like relying on court documents that were not reviewed for accuracy. “To maintain this breakneck pace,” according to the lawsuit, JPMorgan relied on “unlawful practices.”
The accusations outlined in the lawsuit echo problems — from questionable documents used in lawsuits to incomplete records — that plagued the foreclosure process and prompted a multibillion-dollar settlement with big banks. One hallmark of the foreclosure crisis, robosigning, in which banks worked through mountains of legal documents without reviewing them for accuracy, is at the center of Ms. Harris’s lawsuit against JPMorgan….”
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