From mortgage fraud to securities litigation, financial institutions frequently have to defend litigation filed against them by customers, borrowers, and third parties, which arise from both commercial and consumer transactions.
Poyner Spruill has a long history of representing banking and financial services clients in North Carolina. Our unique familiarity with the business side of the financial services industry gives us an important advantage in litigating issues that arise for our financial services clients. We represent several major North Carolina based commercial banks with multi-state operations, as well as a wide variety of other financial service companies.
Some of the areas in which we assist our financial services clients include:
- Consumer Regulatory Suits
- Although not all consumer regulatory cases are class actions, consumer regulatory class actions can pose significant threats to financial institutions due to the potential damages if plaintiffs succeed in having a class certified and prevailing on their claims. We have represented a variety of financial institutions ranging from large commercial banks to insurance companies to automobile dealers in consumer class actions and in cases involving the Consumer Leasing Act, Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, among others.
- Mortgage Fraud
- While it is no longer as common as it was following the collapse of the real estate market in 2008, we have extensive experience representing financial institutions seeking to recover losses from fraudulent loan scams. We have also successfully defended major financial institutions that have found themselves in the middle of claims arising as defenses to foreclosures and deficiency actions, and as affirmative claims brought by large groups of buyers as a class or mass action.
- Lender Liability
- We regularly represent banking and other financial institutions who are sued on lender liability claims, including breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, anti-tying violations, and unfair and deceptive trade practices.
- UCC Litigation
- The dishonest bookkeeper is one of the greatest sources of Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) litigation. Often these dishonest actors get away with fraud for years before it is detected. When the customer finally discovers the fraud, they often blame the bank for not detecting the criminal activity and sue the bank. The issue of who is responsible for check fraud, forged endorsements, and forged signatures, presentment, negotiation, and transfer of warranties, and other issues are typically resolved by Article 3 and 4 of the UCC. We frequently litigate these types of claims.
- Trust/Breach of Fiduciary Duties
- We have represented both propounders and the caveators in will caveat cases, beneficiaries and trustees in actions to modify or terminate irrevocable trusts, and corporate trustees in fiduciary claims made against them. In addition, we have represented the trust department of a major bank in several cases where the bank served as trustee. We have also advised corporate trustees in their roles as a fiduciary, executors in obtaining declaratory judgments concerning the terms of wills, and corporate executors and trustees in Tax Court and Federal District Court litigation on tax issues. We also regularly represent corporate executors of estates in administrative hearings before the IRS.
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