by Brian Mahany
We are honored to be partnered with the government in the largest federal false claims act case in the U.S. involving a mortgage lender – our $2.4 billion false claims case against Allied Home Mortgage. How did we get that case? By helping Allied’s employees who weren’t properly paid. Although we often represent taxpayers or homeowners who were cheated by lenders, we also represent mortgage industry workers.
The federal Fair Labor Standards Act covers many workers such as underwriters, compliance review workers, processors and clerical personnel. Just about everyone but branch managers. That law says that workers must be paid for every hour worked and must also receive overtime for hours in excess of 40 per week.
Very often the same people in the board rooms calling the shots and making policy decisions that ultimately hurt tens of thousands homeowners are the same people who don’t pay their employees properly.
If you worked for a company and were required to do any of the following, you may have a claim:
- work while off the clock
- not getting paid for travel time to see clients
- paying only commissions (inside salespeople)
- improperly classifying you exempt from overtime
- claiming you are an independent contractor when the facts suggest you are an employee
- requiring you to be on call
It should come as no surprise that one of the business sectors with a high percentage of noncompliance is the mortgage industry.
While businesses may try to cut back on expenses by reducing labor costs, they can’t simply override federal and state labor laws. It’s no wonder so many whistleblowers come forward; they simply aren’t treated well by their employer. Deny your workers overtime or require them to be on call 24/7 with no additional pay and won’t be long before one becomes a whistleblower.
If you don’t believe you were properly paid or if you have knowledge of wrongdoing within the mortgage industry, please give us a call. Very often these cases can be handled on a class action basis meaning that you are united with other similarly situated people. While we certainly understand the mortgage industry better than many other law firms we are interested in helping workers in other industries as well.
For more information, contact attorney Brian Mahany at (414) 704-6731 (direct) or by email at . All inquiries are kept strictly confidential.
Mahany & Ertl – America’s Fraud Lawyers. We proudly give victims and workers a voice. Offices in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Detroit, Michigan; Portland, Maine & Minneapolis, Minnesota. Services available in other jurisdictions. We generally partner with other quality firms in large multijurisdictional cases.