Lender Processing Services is a publicly traded company that supports mortgage and lending institutions across the US. As a publicly traded company, they are required to disclose certain liabilities to the public….the following disclosures come from the LPS form 10k filed with the SEC. When LPS is acting as an agent for lenders….those lenders will face the same liabilities as their agent…read on….
Litigation
In the ordinary course of business, we are involved in various pending and threatened litigation matters related to our operations, some of which include claims for punitive or exemplary damages. Often, these matters do not include a specific statement as to the dollar amount of damages demanded. Instead, they include a demand in an amount to be proved at trial. For these reasons, it is often not possible to make a meaningful estimate of the amount or range of loss that could result from these matters. Accordingly, we review matters on an ongoing basis and follow the provisions of Financial Accounting Standards Board (” FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification (” ASC”) Topic 450, Contingencies, when making accrual and disclosure decisions. When assessing reasonably possible and probable outcomes, we base our decision on our assessment of the ultimate outcome following all appeals. We intend to vigorously defend all litigation matters that are brought against us, and we do not believe that the ultimate disposition of any of these lawsuits will have a material adverse impact on our financial position or results of operations. Finally, we believe that no actions, other than the matter listed below, depart from customary litigation incidental to our business.
Schneider, Kenneth, et al. vs. Lender Processing Services, Inc., et al.
On February 17, 2010 this putative class action complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. In a single count complaint, the plaintiffs seek to recover unspecified damages for alleged violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act relating to the preparation and use of assignments of mortgage in foreclosure actions. The defendants include two large banks, as well as LPS and our document solutions subsidiary. The complaint essentially alleges that the “industry practice” of creating assignments of mortgages after the actual date on which a loan was transferred from one beneficial owner to another is unlawful. The complaint also challenges the authority of individuals employed by our document solutions subsidiary to execute such assignments as officers of various banks and mortgage companies. Although we do not believe that our conduct falls under the provisions of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, at this early stage we are unable to accurately predict the outcome of this matter.
Regulatory Matters
Due to the heavily regulated nature of the mortgage industry, from time to time we receive inquiries and requests for information from various state and federal regulatory agencies, including state insurance departments, attorneys general and other agencies, about various matters relating to our business. These inquiries take various forms, including informal or formal requests, reviews, investigations and subpoenas. We attempt to cooperate with all such inquiries. Recently, during an internal review of the business processes used by our document solutions subsidiary, we identified a business process that caused an error in the notarization of certain documents, some of which were used in foreclosure proceedings in various jurisdictions around the country. The services performed by this subsidiary were offered to a limited number of customers, were unrelated to our core default management services and were immaterial to our financial results. We immediately corrected the business process and began to take remedial actions necessary to cure the defect in an effort to minimize the impact of the error. We subsequently received an inquiry relating to this matter from the Clerk of Court of Fulton County, Georgia, which is the regulatory body responsible for licensing the notaries used by our document solutions subsidiary. In response, we met with the Clerk of Court, along with members of her staff, and reported on our identification of the error and the status of the corrective actions that were underway. We have since completed our remediation efforts with respect to the affected documents.