United Law Group
Here is important information about the United Law Group class action pending in the Orange County California Superior Court.
On January 19, 2012, the Orange County Superior Court entered a judgment against United Law Group for $37.7 million. As United Law Group is currently in bankruptcy proceedings, a claim has been made on behalf of the class members in bankruptcy court. The bankruptcy court recovered $286,000 which will be distributed to ULG victims. It is possible a smaller amount of additional funds will be recovered in the future.
The Superior Court has now approved a distribution approach.
To read the Class Notice click here.
The deadline to submit a claim has passed. The settlement checks were mailed out February 6, 2015. Depending on your distance from place of mailing you should expect your check to arrive in 2-3 business days. You are strongly encouraged to deposit or cash your check within a few weeks. If you wait too long the check will go stale and it could be many months before you can receive the funds.
If you have technical problems depositing your check, you can contact Settlement Administrator CPT Group at 1-866-708-9879.
If the claimant is deceased, the legal representative of the decedent can submit the claim but the check will be issued in the name of the decedent so contact your bank to determine what you will need to cash that check.
UPDATE 1-31-15: The Court has approved the distribution of funds per the above settlement. In addition, the Court allowed late claims received by 11:59:59 pm January 26th. There were over 1,700 claims so the amount paid to each claimant will be approximately $90. Unfortunately, that is all the money available from the bankruptcy estate of United Law Group. If any money is recovered in the future, which is only a slim hope, more information will be posted here. Those who submitted timely valid claims should expect payment around February 13, 2015.
The former owner of United Law Group was Sean Alan Rutledge, date of birth April 27, 1975. Mr. Rutledge forfeited his law license in California but may be posing as an attorney here or elsewhere. Anyone who knows the current location of Mr. Rutledge should contact my office. He is currently a fugitive from this lawsuit.
Background
As you may have heard, United Law Group was a popular law firm offering loan modification services to thousands of consumers. United Law Group is now defunct and in bankruptcy, its former owner Sean Rutledge lost his license to practice law in California and other officers and employees have scattered to the winds.
A number of former clients who lost their money (the Plaintiffs) filed this lawsuit which was approved to be a class action on behalf of 5,000+ former clients across the United States.
I want to emphasize that although we are making best efforts to recover something for all these victims, it will be very difficult to recovery anything and the chances of a full recovery are virtually nonexistent.
If you signed a legal services agreement with United Law Group of Irvine, California (it also had offices in other cities) to receive loan modification services, you are a member of the Class of persons who may benefit from this pending lawsuit.
You should continue to monitor this web page for more details. Please do not call this law office simply to ask how the case is proceeding or to update your address. Most likely future notices will not be mailed to you and it will be up to you to monitor this website every 30 days for updates.