State Bar Moves to Oust SoCal Lawyer Accused of Scamming Loan Modification Clients
Andrew Weitz of Encino was originally scheduled to go on trial this month on 52 counts of professional misconduct.
February 16, 2018 at 06:34 PM
3 minute read
The state bar has moved to disbar a Southern California lawyer accused of charging loan modification clients hundreds of thousands of dollars in “unconscionable” and illegal fees.
Andrew Weitz, 60, of Encino was scheduled to go on trial this month on 52 counts of professional misconduct, including sharing fees with nonattorneys, commingling client and personal funds, and lying to clients and bar investigators. Weitz appeared briefly for proceedings but then left, according to the bar.
The State Bar Court of California entered a default judgment against Weitz on Feb. 9 and, after 50 days, bar counsel plans to petition for his disbarment.
In a phone interview Friday, Weitz told The Recorder that someone with a loan modification company opened a bank account that included his name without his knowledge. He denied all of the charges against him, but said he could no longer fight them because he could not afford the legal costs.
“The bar has been nothing but a bully throughout this whole proceeding leading me to conclude that I could have spent all the money in the world on legal fees and presented the best case that could be presented and the bar judge would ignore my valid points and rule against me,” Weitz said.
The bar suspended Weitz's license to practice in 2016 after filing the first of three disciplinary complaints against him. A consumer alert notice was also placed above his name in the attorney listings on the bar's website.
Allegations of misconduct by lawyers handling loan modification work have been a significant problem for the bar since the recession struck almost a decade ago, making California the epicenter of the foreclosure crisis. In 2011, James Towery, then-chief trial counsel for the bar, told the California Bar Journal that one-third of his office's workload was driven by complaints against loan modification lawyers.
“It's like being in a District Attorney's Office in the midst of a crime wave,” Towery said.
The Center for Public Integrity in a 2016 report identified more than 1,000 attorneys nationwide who had been accused of wrongdoing tied to loan modification work.
The California bar claims that Weitz in 2014 collected $14,700 from a homeowner with a troubled mortgage, falsely told that client he had done modification work on his behalf and then, one month later, told bar investigators he “had no knowledge” of the client. In another case, Weitz is accused of taking $15,000 in up-front fees for a woman at risk of losing her home and then depositing a $9,750 check meant for her lender in his firm's general bank account.
Bar investigators also said Weitz inappropriately shared fees with nonattorneys, aided his staff in practicing law without a license, continued to practice law after the bar declared him inactive in 2016, and charged illegal fees while his license was suspended.
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