|
 |
 |
 |
Commercial and Consumer Fraud
E. David Hoskins has also represented individual and class-action plaintiffs across the United States in consumer fraud, civil racketeering (RICO) and unfair trade practices cases.
Federal statutes protect consumers from unlawful restraints of trade and commerce, price discrimination, price fixing and monopolies. Most states have similar antitrust statutes covering unlawful restraints of trade within a state. When corporations act alone or with others to extract greater profits from a market than the corporations could in a competitive market, those corporations may have violated state or federal antitrust law.
One important Maryland consumer protection statute is the Maryland Secondary Mortgage Loan Law. It is a law intended to guard Maryland borrower's by limiting the amount of closing costs that can be charged for a second mortgage. Pursuant to the statute, a lender may charge an origination fee up to a statutory maximum and the actual fees paid to a public official or governmental agency for recording or satisfying the instrument securing the loan. No other expenses or charges are permitted under the statute. Thus, the following fees normally charged by lenders are prohibited from being charged in a second mortgage governed by the statute: processing fees; courier fees; document preparation fees; underwriting fees; administration fees and application fees.
The statute also requires that a person may not make a secondary mortgage loan unless the person is licensed under or exempt from the licensing requirements of the Maryland Mortgage Lender Law; regulates the maximum amount of interest that may be charged by a lender; prohibits discrimination based upon age in granting or denying an application for a loan; and prohibits the lender from collecting "a delinquent or late charge of the greater of $2 or 5 percent of the amount of any delinquent or late periodic installment."
If a lender violates any provision of the statute, the lender may collect only the principal amount of the loan and may not collect any interest, costs, or other charges with respect to the loan. If the lender is found to have knowingly violated the statute, the lender is also required to forfeit to the borrower three times the amount of interest and charges collected in excess of that authorized by law.
If you would like more information concerning representation for an employment discrimination case, please fill out a case evaluation request form.
|
|
