Various groups have expressed concern over the possible effects of Ally Financial’s decision to review foreclosure cases in 23 states.

Iowa Assistant Attorney General Patrick Madigan said that the move might be a huge issue across the country, not only in the affected states. “If servicers are submitting court documents that aren’t true or that have not been verified, that is of great concern,” said Madigan, who heads a national foreclosure prevention group.

Ally Financial, formerly GMAC Mortgage, is reviewing the cases for a “potential issue.” It did not elaborate on the matter but representatives of disgruntled home buyers claim that it’s because of cases filed against the former financing arm of General Motors.

Lawyers said Ally employed one man to sign all the documents it uses to get eviction permits from courts. The employee, 41-year-old Jeffrey Stephan, testified that he was the head of document execution unit of Ally. Based on the number of documents he approved and supposedly reviewed on an eight-hour workday, Stephan signs one document per 1.5 minutes. Thomas Cox, an attorney in Maine, said that obviously that time is not enough to review the documents. “A ridiculous amount of time for something so critically important,” he said.

Meanwhile, Florida lawyer Christopher Immel, who deposed Stephan in a case, said the employee was probably under the impression that “it was okay to do this.” “GMAC has a business model to do this, and Stephan was just one small part of it,” he said.

Will this lead to home buyers challenging the process used by lenders in claiming eviction orders? Log in now or enter your email below to leave a comment.