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One of our ongoing frustrations about media coverage of the mortgage mess is its failure to paymuch attention to ample evidence of substantial servicer overcharges to borrowers. It’s badenough that that happens, but far worse is that when servicers are told that they’ve been caughtout, they refuse to make corrections and stonewall court-ordered remedies.

The facts that have surfaced before one bankruptcy judge, li!abeth "agner of the astern#istrict of $ouisiana, and one servicer, %ells &argo, should give industry defenders pause. %ells,as we have pointed out repeatedly, has an annoying habit of piously claiming it is better thanother servicers when it engages in the same indefensible conduct as its peers. 'o if you were totake %ells at its word, the conduct of other servicers is at least as bad as what has taken place inthis jurisdiction, if not worse. (emember, servicers are highly routini!ed operations, so ifsomething, it is almost certain to be standard practice. )nd %ells has admitted that in this case.

*ere is a snippet of background from another case in "agner’s courtas recounted by the +enterfor ublic Integrity

In an )pril //0 ruling, li!abeth "agner, a 1.'. bankruptcy judge in 2ew Orleans, rejected thetwo charges 3for broker price opinions charged when the parish in which the home was locatedwas evacuated thanks to *urricane 4atrina5 as invalid. 'he also disallowed 67 home inspections,78 late charges, and thousands of dollars in legal fees charged to the 'tewarts’ account.

)lmost every disallowed fee was imposed while the 'tewarts were making regular monthly payments on their home9

"agner determined that %ells &argo had been :duplicitous and misleading; and ordered the bank to pay