Bennett

HONOLULU — State Attorney General Mark Bennett and Stephen Levins, executive director of the Office of Consumer Protection, last week announced that Hawaii has joined a multi-state effort to address practices by mortgage loan servicers that appear to be in violation of state laws.

The state discovered that a number of mortgage loan servicers have submitted affidavits or signed other documents in support of either a judicial or non-judicial foreclosure that appear to have procedural defects.

In particular, it appears that affidavits and other documents have been signed by persons who did not have personal knowledge of the facts asserted in the documents.

In addition, it appears that many affidavits were signed outside of the presence of a notary public, contrary to state law.

This process of signing documents without confirming their accuracy has come to be known as “robo-signing.”

The Department of the Attorney General and the Office of Consumer Protection believe such a process may constitute a deceptive act and/or an unfair practice or otherwise violate state laws.

A bipartisan multi-state group has been formed to address issues common to a large number of states. The group is comprised of state attorneys and state bank and mortgage regulators.

Currently, 49 state attorneys general have joined this coordinated effort.