Did JPMorgan Chase Have Anything to Do with Your Foreclosure Case?

Newport Beach, CAThe US home foreclosure crisis and the practice of bundling mortgage debt into securitized bonds seems to be a never-ending source of problems. Now, a consumer fraud class-action suit, filed in US District Court, claims that JPMorgan Chase routinely uses fake documents to misrepresent itself as having standing in bankruptcy cases. Rather than bare the cost of proving the chain of ownership, Chase simply manufactures documents. "We've been able to track the JPMorgan cases from Santa Barbara, down to Orange County, Riverside and Los Angeles," says attorney Joe Roberts, "and you see the same nonsense documents being filed, and you see the judges biting on it, and you see the attorneys lying down and letting JPMorgan assert itself."

The case started out as a battle with JPMorgan on behalf of a single client but turned into a class action after Roberts noticed a pattern in the courts where JPMorgan was involved.

"This is not going to stop individual foreclosures," says Roberts. "It's the practice that we are targeting. People should have their day in court and be able to say that's not the guy that owns my loan, and he does not have the right to impose the remedy he seeks."

Ironically, most of the time, Robert says, JPMorgan is the legitimate owner of the loan—it just doesn't want to spend the time and money to "prove it up."

"Ninety-five percent of the time they may really have standing in bankruptcy court to do what they are doing," says Roberts. "The problem is they just don't feel like they have the obligation to spend the money to establish their burden. It denies people their day in court, it chills the opposition and it results in an easy win."

According to the complaint, JPMorgan Chase played a game of "hide and seek" with "debtors, judges and bankruptcy judges," using Photoshop-altered affidavits, endorsements, deeds and other documents to establish its rights as a secured creditor in hundreds of bankruptcy cases.

"It is almost as if they think they are justified because they can save money to manufacture and make these false representations," says Roberts. "The result is they win all these motions because the documents look so good. The lawyer's fees for winning are then passed onto consumers and they are that much closer to bankruptcy."

The practice effectively transfers the liability for the loss back to the mortgage-backed securities bond holders. The class-action suit seeks compensatory, statutory and punitive damages for unfair and deceptive trade, and "an order vacating all bankruptcy orders, claims and awards granted based on Chase's misrepresentation and deceptive business practices."


Joseph Arthur Roberts specializes in debt relief and bankruptcy cases. He holds an MBA from the University of Southern California, a JD from Wayne State and a BA from the University of Michigan. Since 1994, he has been in private practice at The Law Offices of J. Arthur Roberts.