On January 21, 2015, United States District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California granted final approval of a $5.3 million settlement to resolve claims that Aurora Loan Services, LLC (“Aurora”) used deceptive mortgage forbearance agreements that extracted payments from distressed California borrowers. The Court also approved and appointed Abtahi Law Firm as class counsel.

Initially filed in June 2010, the lawsuit against Aurora alleged that Aurora induced borrowers into deceptive “workout agreements” that gave them false hope of avoiding a default on their mortgages; Aurora used these “workout agreements” to collect thousands of dollars for months under promise that the “workout agreements” would provide borrowers an opportunity to cure the default on their loans. According to the suit, after extracting several months of payment, Aurora foreclosed on the homes without giving the borrowers any notice and without allowing them access to any cure method, despite the provisions of the “workout agreements.”