Consumer Financial Services Litigation

Womble Carlyle's Consumer Financial Services Litigation Team provides its clients with the best of both worlds, bringing together nationally prominent regulatory and compliance experience with the litigation know-how for which Womble Carlyle is known.

Womble Carlyle is a leader in the field of consumer financial services litigation both within its "footprint" states in the Southeast and elsewhere. The Team brings together attorneys from Womble Carlyle’s Southeastern-based offices and from a variety of practice groups, supplying both the substantive knowledge required to resolve disputes arising in this complex regulatory framework and the regional familiarity needed to avoid local litigation pitfalls.

The Consumer Financial Services Litigation Team boasts a breadth of skills and experience that few can equal. We tackle consumer financial services legal challenges aggressively, whether the need is pre-litigation compliance counseling, systematic or product-specific risk assessment, sensitive state and federal enforcement matters, representation in a judge or jury trial, or assistance evaluating or lobbying for state or federal legislation.

Experience

Members of our Consumer Financial Services Litigation Team handle all forms of dispute resolution, including pre-litigation negotiations, enforcement matters, mediation, arbitration and full-blown litigation. Clients also enjoy the benefits of Womble Carlyle’s renowned class action practice, and the Team has substantial experience litigating fair lending and discrimination, mortgage lending, banking, insurance and other consumer financial services class action cases.

The Team consists of over 20 lawyers, many with extensive trial experience, and includes some of the nation’s leading authorities in consumer financial services regulation and compliance. Our ability to bring this skill set to bear, both at the outset of cases or enforcement actions and during the proceedings, adds a dimension to our services that few firms possess. Our compliance, regulatory and administrative capacities include complex risk assessment and product evaluation under the host of state and federal laws that cover this complex field. So, when we are asked to handle a case or proceeding, we are likely to be familiar with the regulatory, operational and business considerations tied to the dispute or action.

Our regulatory, compliance, litigation and dispute resolution experience includes:

  • Truth in Lending Act and Regulation Z
  • Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act and state and local "predatory lending" laws
  • Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act and state settlement laws
  • Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and state law equivalents
  • Fair Credit Reporting Act as amended by FACTA
  • Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B
  • Fair Housing Act and similar state and local laws
  • Consumer Leasing Act and Regulation M
  • Home Owners Loan Act and National Bank Act doctrines of federal preemption and banking powers
  • E-Sign and UETA, as well as payment systems and remittance laws
  • Racketeering and Corrupt Organizations Act ("RICO")

Our attorneys also have significant experience litigating and defending claims brought under state home loan protection acts, unfair and deceptive trade practices acts, and other significant state and federal laws (such as the UCC and federal preemption laws) that impact consumer financial services. Our clients are companies and institutions that offer nearly every type of consumer financial product or service and include banks, mortgage lenders, thrifts, finance companies, automobile lending and leasing companies, technology vendors, insurance companies, investment banks, and non-traditional lenders involved in payday advance lending, refund anticipation loans and on-line lending products.

Team attorneys work with each client and, with our regulatory and compliance attorneys, typically engage in careful case assessment at the outset of a matter. This assessment may include nuanced analyses of federal preemption, the interplay of state and federal laws, the regulatory and enforcement climate as to a particular product or practice and the way different (and sometimes conflicting) regulations affect the case. A thorough assessment enables our clients to develop litigation plans and budgets that reflect risk severities and probabilities from the outset of each case. We aim, consistent with our clients’ objectives, to litigate cases and handle disputes efficiently and cost-effectively, while providing clients with early evaluations of cases so that alternate forms of dispute resolution may be evaluated.