Mental Duress
as an issue of Agreement (read more...)
mental duress, defined:
the use of threats or other forms of psychological coercion, done to induce another to act against his or her will. Mental duress is frequently an issue in contracts which, by law, require all parties to act on their own initiative. While the law varies between jurisdictions, generally speaking, any agreement is void if it can be shown that mental duress was used in the contracting process. Agreement by definition requires a meeting of the minds.
mental duress, as it might be used:
After enduring prolonged of verbal abuse and in a state of mental duress the octogenarian signed the forms.

(read more...)
About the Legal Elements
With legal terminology it’s important to understand both the what and the why. That is, you need to know both what the term means and why it’s important in the eyes of the law. Without understanding the why, you can miss the point even with a perfectly good definition in mind. That’s why Clear-Point Law has created a proprietary system for indexing legal terminology. We call it The Legal Elements.

The legal elements provide non-lawyers with a context for legal terms. These elements represent the key concepts of legal thinking and provide the answer to the question, why is this important. It doesn’t matter if the issue is criminality or contracts. For a description of all 12 Legal Elements, see our Overview of the Legal Elements.

The Element of Agreement

Agreement is a common issue in legal analysis, fundamental to understanding human interaction. As such, legal language is not lacking for terms to describe the many aspects of agreement. Diverse terms such as acceleration clause and marriage fall under this Legal Element.


Predatory lending
EXCERPT:
Predatory lending typically occurs on loans backed by some kind of collateral, such as a car or house, so that if the borrower defaults on the loan, the lender can repossess or foreclose and profit by selling the repossessed or foreclosed property. Lenders may be accused of tricking a borrower into believing that an interest rate is lower than it actually is, or that the borrower's ability to pay is greater than it actually is. The lender, or others as agents of the lender, may well profit from repossession or foreclosure upon the collateral.

Predatory mortgage servicing
EXCERPT:
The term is believed to have been coined in a 1999 white paper titled 20th Century Loan Sharks[4] from Americans Against Mortgage Abuse. The paper's author, Nye Lavalle, described four stages of predatory mortgage practices that included: Stage 1 -- Predatory Mortgage Securitization; Stage 2 -- Predatory Mortgage Origination/Lending; Stage 3 -- Predatory Mortgage Servicing; and Stage 4 -- Predatory Mortgage Foreclosure. The term "predatory servicing" was used in Lavalle's report against Bear Stearns and EMC Mortgage that same year.[5][6][7][8]

While there are no specific laws against predatory mortgage servicing abuses,[9] there are local, state, and federal laws against many of the specific practices commonly identified as predatory mortgage servicing abuses, and various state and federal agencies use the term as a catch-all term for many specific illegal activities in the mortgage servicing industry. Predatory mortgage servicing is not to be confused with predatory lending which is used to describe the unfair, deceptive, or fraudulent practices of mortgage brokers and lenders during the mortgage loan origination process.[10]

Predatory mortgage servicing typically occurs on subprime, Alt-A, scratch and dent, and toxic mortgages that are being serviced by special or default servicers or servicers and lenders that are financially in trouble. There are many motives for predatory servicing practices and a report titled Misbehavior and Mistake in Bankruptcy Mortgage Claim by Katherine M. Porter, professor of law at the University of Iowa details the effects and damages caused by servicing abuses.[11] The landmark report has been cited by several state and federal judges in decisions related to predatory mortgage servicing and foreclosure practices.