28 February 2010 450 views No Comment Email This Post

Bander Law Firm has 1,000 creditors; BK hearings at hotel instead of court
The Bander Law Firm, LLP, which has recently became “broke” and filed for bankruptcy, is facing two class action lawsuits filed by at least 100 of their own former clients, court records show.
As this developed, KFI News reported on Friday that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has begun its probe on the Bander Law Firm, which filed for bankruptcy last Feb. 12. but no details were given.
One of the lawsuits was filed by about 80 former BLF clients represented by Agoura-based Atty. Anne Singer. Most of Singer’s clients are Filipinos – the rest are Koreans – some of whom come from as far as San Francisco. The other lawsuit was filed by the very popular lawyer, Atty. Mark Geragos, who represents some 30 Armenian homeowners. All complainants claimed to have hired the services of the BLF which promoted the “Sue the Banks” mortgage litigation program whereby homeowners were urged to sue their lenders with the hope of getting a reduced mortgage payment if not a lower value for their home.
Aside from the lawsuits, most of the same complainants also said that they filed complaints to the California State Bar to have Atty. Joel Bander, the managing partner of BLF, disbarred, according to Singer. Singer also told BALITA MEDIA that other government authorities are on BLF’s tail to find out how a law firm which claimed to have enrolled 800 clients in the past one and half years in the “Sue the Banks” program could suddenly file for bankruptcy.
The former BLF clients claimed to have paid thousands of dollars to BLF – from $3,000 to as much as $26,000 – only to see their homes taken away by lenders or are now under foreclosure proceedings because homeowners, who claimed they were told by the BLF to ignore notices from their lenders, have stopped paying their mortgage while they waited for their cases to be filed.
The BLF bankruptcy is so huge that the March 18 creditors’ hearing will be held in the Golden State Room of the Wilshire Grand Hotel located at 930 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, according to Court-appointed Bankruptcy Trustee Attorney David A. Gill, senior partner at Danning, Gill Diamond & Kollitz.
“In my 20 years of bankruptcy practice, I’ve never heard of a creditors’ meeting that will take place outside of a courtroom because of the expected number of creditors who were notified to attend,” said one lawyer, who requested anonymity. A notice from the trustee said that “hearing representatives of the debtor will be present to testify under oath pursuant to law.”
“My understanding of the law firm is that it worked in various areas, but where it got its trouble was in the mortgage foreclosure business,” Gill was quoted as saying by the Daily Journal, the nation’s lawyers’ periodical that publishes legal articles and considered as the bible of lawyers’ news and other information.
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