United Law Group is a scam and the people who work there are scum of the earth. They said they could help me modify my mortgage loan for $4, 800. I paid them the money and almost immediately they disappeared. The scam is almost perfect. They send you a welcome package that says they have contacted your bank and have asked in a legal manner to stop all proceeding against you and that they are demanding that the bank produce some legal documents before proceeding. Meanwhile, they ask you to fill out lots of personal information and get that back to them. When you do that they still do nothing. I waited 4 months for them to act. I could not reach them by phone. You call and you get an answering service who takes your message but nobody ever calls back. You keep calling and you eventually get a live person, who is rude and will hang up on you if you complain about how poor the service is.
Then I received notice that my bank was foreclosing. I called ULG to ask why the bank was foreclosing when ULG said they had everything under control, and as usual I was not able to talk to anyone. After a few days my bank called me and wanted to make me an offer and agreed to stop the foreclosure. I then called ULG to get my money back. They had done nothing for me, so I wanted my money back. Eventually, on 2/1/2010, I reached someone named Stephanie who said she was the customer services supervisor. She said the refund would take 4-6 weeks. I never heard another thing. I called back on 3/26 and eventually talked to Marissa, Stephanie's replacement. She said she would send an email to the refund department and that is all she could do. When I asked for the phone number to the refund department, she said she could not give it to me, that it was company policy not to. Marissa said I should receive a call by 3/30/2010. I never received a call!
Today, 4/8/2010 I call again. This time I'm told that the refund department will call me back. I wait 2 hours and nobody calls, so I call back. I'm then told that I complain too much and that is why it is taking so long to return my money.
I will never get my money back. This is a complete scam. They have not done one thing for me but take my money. A man with a fake British accent on a phone message, and a stressed out lady posing as a customer services representative is all that exists here. We need to send these criminals to prison. Please do not give them your money.

Published: March 11, 2010
Updated: 7:27 p.m.
Federal search warrants targets Irvine loan modification firm
By SEAN EMERY
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
COMMENTS 10 | RECOMMEND 3 | PRINT | EMAIL | SHARE
ARTICLE
IRVINE – A half-dozen federal and local agencies conducted a raid on the United Law Group's Irvine offices on Thursday, as law enforcement officials carried out a federal search warrant tied to a loan modification fraud investigation.
The U.S. Postal Inspection service led the raid on the embattled loan modification firm, along with officials from the FBI, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, the Orange County District Attorney's office, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program and officers from the Newport Beach and Irvine Police Departments, Postal Inspector Renee Focht said. The raid began at 8 a.m., with officials shutting the office at 2525 Campus Drive as they carried out the search, Focht said. No arrests were reported.
The raid was part of an ongoing federal investigation involving possible loan modification fraud, FBI Spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.
Investigators in their affidavit for a search warrant allege that the United Law Group is a company "permeated by fraud." Interviews with clients and former employees indicated that the company collects upfront fees of between $1, 500 and $12, 000 as a retainer before work begins, although investigators say they were unaware of any cases where the company completed a successful loan modification, beyond the ones cited in their advertising campaign, according to the affidavit.
United Law Group was already facing scrutiny from the California State BAR.
The state BAR in July filed a notice of disciplinary charges against Sean Rutledge, an attorney with the United Law Group, accusing him of taking $1, 750 from a homeowner in November 2008 but never making an effort to get his loan modified.
The state BAR filing alleged that it took the client months to get their money back, and that they were forced to sign a document releasing Rutledge from all legal liabilities. Rutledge in a statement released after the charges were made public declined to comment on anything related to a former client.
Contact the writer: 714-796-7939 or [email protected]

I started with ULG in 2008, they charged $3500 upfront. Patricia stated they had modified 97% of the loans they had worked on and the 3% they did not were based on the client lying about their income. Patricia from the Bergstrum Group which I later found out was a front for another law firm in Ca. said United Law Group had a sophisiticated software program that could find discrepencies in almost 100% of all mortgage agreements and this would force my mortgager to reduce the principal, interest and eliminate late payments. When I was handed off to ULG, they confirmed what Patricia from The Bergstrum Group had said.

I could go on and on about ULG's failings, lies and incompetence. They are too many too count, so I will just mention a couple.
I will also show you why ULG thinks you should use them, I will counter in parenthesis.

First off, I found out through my 2 year modification ordeal, a mortgagor requires financials(income and bills), proof of income and a hardship letter to consider you for a modification. I provided ULG 3 or 4 sets of these, some of which that were never sent to my mortgagor. I had a sheriff's sale schedule 10/29/2009, to stop the sale I provided theses financials and hardship letter to United Law Group on Oct. 7.

Subject: Re:
Date: Wed, 07 Oct 2009 11:48:05 -0500
From: Jeff Fxxxxxxxx <[email protected]>
To: Yesenia Ortxx <[email protected]>
References: <445A30809460F44FBD59E4ED060A1FC27EBCC0@ulgsrv-mail1.unitedlawgroup.local>


I am sending you the fax now. Please confirm when you receive it.

Thanks,

Jeff F

Yesenia never responded, this commenced my 3 week odyssey of calling ULG 3-8 times a day to get a person. I got shut out over 200 times because the automated system said they were too busy to take calls . It did not even give you the option of leaving a voice mail.
Finally about a week before the scheduled sale, I called ULG and, get this!, got an answering service. I spoke with the answering service lady and asked what happened to ULG, she thought they might have been shut down or something like that. After that I decided if I were to save my home, I would have to do it myself. I contacted the mortgagor and asked when they need my hardship letter, they said the time has passed but told me to get it in asap and they would see what they could do. I averted the sale on the 28th, I found out later the mortgagor received my hardship letter on October 29 AFTER THE SCHEDULED SHERIFF'S SALE. This is the same set of documents I provided to ULG on Oct. 7. To top it off, even this incompetent act would not have been performed had I not sent them this email on Oct. 27.

"***URGENT*** Regarding Case # xxxxx FACING A SHERIFF'S SALE IN 2 DAYS!! ***URGENT*** Reply |Jeff Fxxxxxxxx to info, YOrtxx, dbxxxxxx, msc, AskDOJ
show details 10/27/09

fromJeff Fxxxxxxxx <[email protected]>
[email protected],
[email protected]

[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected]

dateTue, Oct 27, 2009 at 8:53 PM
subject***URGENT*** Regarding Case # 45437 FACING A SHERIFF'S SALE IN 2 DAYS!! ***URGENT***
mailed-bygmail.com


To Anyone who will listen at United Law Group, The Better Business Bureau, California State Bar and US Attorney General,

Below United Law Group requested documents on Oct.7. On Oct 7, I faxed the documents you requested. I followed up with an email that was never responded to. I then call United Law Group every day for the next week before I managed to reach someone. They confirmed receipt of documents and that they were sent to my lender. I then called United Law Group again every day trying confirm that lender got the documents. When I could not reach anyone at ULG, I finally contacted my lender. They informed me that one of the only times they ever spoke with ULG was on Oct. 7. They told me no documents were received, my sheriff's sale is scheduled in 2 days and I am at the end of my rope with all of you!

Why has ULG not been shut down for taking thousands of borrowers money and then not doing a thing, NOT A DAMN THING. I called and called and they repeatly told me 2 things:

1. The ball is in the lender's court and we have to wait(I have been waiting over a year now!!)
2. Do NOT contact the lender as this will portray weakness. (ULG- DO YOU SAY THIS SO ALL OF US SUCKERS WON'T CALL THE LENDER AND FIND OUT YOU HAVE NOT DONE A DAMN THING!)

I spent $3500 on this pathetic excuse for humanity. I want it back now! I want to at least have a CHANCE to save my home that I raised my 3 children in. I want a chance to work this out with the lender. But it won't happen without you... any of you. I need your help, my kids need your help. Please get my sheriffs sale postponed so I have shot at fixing this ROYAL MESS ULG has created.

God help us,

Jeff Fxxxxxxxx
6xx-6xx-xxxx(Feel free to call me, I won't have an answering service field my calls and my responsibilities like ULG did all day today)"

It is now the end of January, why do I complain now? I was totally ashamed I got taken to the bank by these people that really do give all lawyer a bad name. I finally came around and decided the GOOD, HONEST, HARD WORKING people that find themselves in my spot HAVE TO turn tail and run from ANYONE and I MEAN ANYONE who wants an Upfront fee to modify their loan. Call your county government, they will put in touch with HONEST people that will HELP.

ULG says you need them, because they have teeth. They DO NOT have teeth, why, because they choking on the millions WE have given to them.

Last note: In almost 2 years of working with this LAW FIRM, how many LAWYERS did I speak with? 10-no, 5-no, ... 2-NO... 1-NO!! HOW ABOUT ZERO!!!

This Company took 3500 from us in Dec 2008 it is now 1 yr later and they have done nothing except put us into foreclosure, they have not contacted us, and we cannot contact them its always the same thing, they are either to busy to answer calls or they are closed in the middle of the day. ULG are scammers they are getting rich while people are trying to keep their homes, we have a very modest home and I lived in the same town my whole life and now we do not know what is going to happen. ULG actually told us not to make our house payment we trusted them they said it looks better if you dont make the payment it gives them more leadway to help our modification, then we get hit with a foreclosure letter, thank goodness our loan company is trying to help us. Please do not use ULG, I cant even get in touch with them for a refund, like Im going to get that. I hope the employees at ULG can sleep at night.

Listen, there was nobody as angry as I was at United Law Group when I entered my complaints online a year ago or so. My complaints were similar to everyone else's complaints I read here. But the truth is that I found out that United Law Group did exactly what they said they would do and that it is not United Law Group that is a scam, but these banks such as BOA and Countrywide ect. I imagine that United Law Group is just as frustrated as we all are that these banks are potentially breaking the law and not doing the loan modifications that they really said they would do. So what happened in my situation is that ULG submitted everything to the bank and the bank ignores it. So ULG ends up having to wait for the banks response that takes months for even the most simple thing such as an acknowledgment that the client is know represented by ULG. So United Law Groups hands are tied because they are at the mercy of waiting for the banks response. Then we call ULG and get mad because they can not tell us anything yet and we are confused. But ULG did the right thing and filed a class action law suit on behalf of their clients. What else could they do? But they did the right thing and they did everything they said they would do in my case, even when I thought they were not. I spent a year investigating just exactly what transpired between the dialog between ULG and the banks and was stunned that ULG was doing not only everything they said they would do, but even more. There was tons of dialog between ULG and the bank that I was able to verify. I thought that maybe ULG scammed me and took my money and was not doing anything. But that was not the case and even though I was furious and frustrated and just wanted someone to take it out on, I realized that it was not ULG that was the cause. The truth is that ULG is a law firm where an Attorney offers to do the loan modification process for you. But I have never had an Attorney that guarantees that I will win or get what I want. An Attorney just guarantees that they will represent you through it. Which in this case ULG did represent me and it did have more of an influence on the bank than if I did it on my own. Yes it was long suffering and frustrating, but at the end of the day the banks began to realize that there was a class action suit and started dealing with the ULG customers one by one so that they could probably go on the record in the class action. So really peoples chances with doing their loan modification through ULG are better because the banks see that they are under the gun now with the class action suit. It has been over a year and I was finally offered a Bac Home Loan modification opportunity because ULG got the bank to offer it to me. Of course BofA did there same old stalling and dropping the ball. The minute I told them that I was represented by ULG and that it would be to their benefit to not drop the ball, I got a call from the BofA Underwriter in Florida who apologized to me and said "we are going to take care of this right now!" Bam! I had my loan modification approved. There is no doubt in my mind that if I was not represented by ULG that the bank would have continued to delay and ultimately scam me with not approving the loan modification. So at the end of the day my hat goes off to ULG and it was the best decision that I have made while dealing with these heartless banks and my loan modification. United Law Group saved my life because I would have lost my house if it was not for them because ULG helped me turn it into Goliath vs Goliath instead of David vs. Goliath. I just feel bad for ULG because everyone is blaming them when it is not their fault. It is the banks! and ULG filed a class action suit which is more than they told us they would do. Attorneys just represent and do not guarantee. I would love it if I could get a refund for every time an Attorney lost a case for me. But that is not how it works. The end result is that the BofA only jumped when I had on the record that I was represented by ULG. So my advice is to stop calling ULG and start calling your bank and tell your bank that you are represented by an Attorney. They will look at your record and see that it is true and actually do more for you than they would have done if you were not represented by an Attorney. It works! It is also more powerful now to use ULG because the banks are scared of the Class Action suit that they filed! I tell all my friends and my family to use ULG and I certainly would not do that if they ended up being a scam. They were the best thing that happened to me. Which is saying alot because I am one of you and came out here and submitted very damaging online reviews. Actually worse than any of yours.

I have the underwriters phone number for Bac Home loans. What I suggest is calling your underwriter directly and telling them that you are represented by ULG and watch how fast they will jump! The only reason I have the actual underwriters phone number is because BofA wanted to make sure they did not drop the ball. So not everyone has this number. You are represented by and Attorney and you should “USE IT AND NOT ABUSE IT.”

Thank you ULG for saving my Home.

John Wright
San Jose California