cookiecrumbs
Junior Member
What is the name of your state?:SC
I am currently being threatened with a lawsuit because of an email I sent to a company regarding my experience with a lawyer at a real estate closing. I'll include it at the bottom of the message as it is rather long (names and such will be taken out or changed). I want to know if this brand new lawyer has any right to sue me. I don't see anything in the email that was inaccurate and the "defamatory" comments that are in it are things my borrower said to me about the attorney, nothing I agreed with or said myself. I sent it to one person in a lending company so ensure that I would never have to deal with this man again as I have had two closings with him and they were both bad. Because of the email, the equity company decided not to use him and passed it to the title company they use to ensure he was never chosen again for a closing. Here is the email I sent originally:
XYZ Equity Representative,
Here's a run down of my experience today with the attorney, Atty Bad. Please feel free to send this wherever it needs to go to get something done about him. Thank you for all the help this morning!
To begin, he was an hour late to our closing. Anytime someone asks for an exception to close at 8:30 rather than 9:00 that should be indication enough that they have somewhere to be. My borrower, Ms. B, arrived early at 8:25 and then had to wait over an hour. She also had to call her manager and was informed that she would now have to work late today since she was not going to be to work anywhere near 9:00. The title company was wonderful. When I called, the LMN rep. answered the phone and was also outraged that by 8:52 we had not heard from the attorney. The LMN Title rep. promptly called the attorney's office and the office assured the LMN title rep. that he would arrive shortly was on his way and that he would call my cell phone. I then called back at 9:07 to inform the LMN rep. that I had not heard from the attorney and he still was not here. The LMN rep. called the attorney's office back again and the attorney then called the office to get directions. He was about 7 minutes away from where he mentioned he was at that moment (4 miles from the exit from our office, and an additional 1.2 miles from the exit). He finally made it to the office around 9:30. I saw him pull up and opened the door to politely encourage him to speed. He asks, "So, this is the place?" and I answer with a yes, a hand gesture to come in and say, "Yep, come this way." I went to my office just down the hall and he followed just behind leaving the door to our office wide open.
When he sat down, his hair was not brushed, his eyes were swollen, the top button of his shirt was not buttoned, the buttons just above his cuffs on his shirt were not buttoned and his tie was not snug. He then began to make some excuses as to why he was late saying that he was wrapped up in something (he gave an exact thing, but I do not remember what he said as I was rather embarrassed and ticked off at this point). Ms. B looked at me with her eyes a bit wide and then rolled them. We mentioned several times that Ms. B was supposed to be at work around 9:00. He apologized for being late again and then starts with the package. I asked to see her copies so that I could look over everything. He filled out the Hold Harmless Agreement and the Authorization to Disburse and Record Documents pausing along the way to tell us about a closing he had at 9:30 the night before. Ms. B was again getting agitated. I explained to the borrower that page 5 of the closing instructions was showing that her current mortgage and two Chase credit cards were being paid off. This seemed to be a good enough explanation for the attorney since he did not elaborate on the closing instructions. He continues through obviously trying to figure out what each page was as he went and throwing in some antidotes along the way. The borrower was obviously peeved by this and asked if she needed to sign the next piece of paper to get him moving through the package again. He then took a phone call so I handed the borrower a few of the papers and explained what they were since he was offering no to little explanation on everything. He thanked me for the help once he was off the phone. He then continued to hand her papers and I would throw in my small bit of explanation as to what they were. I felt this was a good solution because when the borrower asked the attorney what page 1 of the Home Equity Line of Credit Agreement and Disclosure was and what she was signing, he could offer no explanation. I told her that it was similar to a Good Faith Estimate on a "regular loan" and showed her where the fees were and that the 3rd party fees were $494.25 and that XYZ Equity was paying those. When we reached the end of the closing, there was a note for 6.125% for a property in California at the end. He looked at it and asked the borrower to start initialing. I took it from him before she signed it to make sure it was something concerning an equity line rather than an equity loan since the 6.125% did not make any sense for the borrower’s HELOC. I then discovered that it was the wrong property and that the copies for the borrower did not have the note included. I tried to call two XYZ Equity reps. I reached one and explained that we had the wrong note and that we needed the package emailed immediately to have it signed so that the borrower, who was over an hour late at work by this point, could leave. Between phone calls and waiting to hear back for a few minutes, I made copies of the signed package. Then, the attorney excused himself to use the restroom. (I found out after he left, that during his trip to the restroom he was incapable of lifting a toilet seat or having appropriate aim since there was urine all over the office toilet.) While he was gone, Ms. B makes the comment to me that he is obviously on drugs since he was shaking very noticeably. Also, she informed me that she wanted to leave and do this another time because she did not want to close with this attorney. I assured her it would be over quickly. Once he returned from the restroom, he seemed to feel a bit better since the shaking was not nearly as strong or noticeable. After he comes back and I then get a call from another XYZ Equity representative with the title company on the line also. We go through trying to figure out why the note was wrong and finally figure out that the note was not supposed to be there at all since it was for a fixed rate rather than a HELOC. After getting off the phone with the XYZ Equity representative around 10:20, the attorney pipes up to repeat what he has heard. Paraphrased, it was that the note didn't go with this package since it was an equity line and that the mortgage signed already served that purpose. Before getting off the phone with the XYZ rep., I made sure that Ms. B did not need to sign anything else and could leave. Once I was given the OK, I told her to go ahead to work.
I am currently being threatened with a lawsuit because of an email I sent to a company regarding my experience with a lawyer at a real estate closing. I'll include it at the bottom of the message as it is rather long (names and such will be taken out or changed). I want to know if this brand new lawyer has any right to sue me. I don't see anything in the email that was inaccurate and the "defamatory" comments that are in it are things my borrower said to me about the attorney, nothing I agreed with or said myself. I sent it to one person in a lending company so ensure that I would never have to deal with this man again as I have had two closings with him and they were both bad. Because of the email, the equity company decided not to use him and passed it to the title company they use to ensure he was never chosen again for a closing. Here is the email I sent originally:
XYZ Equity Representative,
Here's a run down of my experience today with the attorney, Atty Bad. Please feel free to send this wherever it needs to go to get something done about him. Thank you for all the help this morning!
To begin, he was an hour late to our closing. Anytime someone asks for an exception to close at 8:30 rather than 9:00 that should be indication enough that they have somewhere to be. My borrower, Ms. B, arrived early at 8:25 and then had to wait over an hour. She also had to call her manager and was informed that she would now have to work late today since she was not going to be to work anywhere near 9:00. The title company was wonderful. When I called, the LMN rep. answered the phone and was also outraged that by 8:52 we had not heard from the attorney. The LMN Title rep. promptly called the attorney's office and the office assured the LMN title rep. that he would arrive shortly was on his way and that he would call my cell phone. I then called back at 9:07 to inform the LMN rep. that I had not heard from the attorney and he still was not here. The LMN rep. called the attorney's office back again and the attorney then called the office to get directions. He was about 7 minutes away from where he mentioned he was at that moment (4 miles from the exit from our office, and an additional 1.2 miles from the exit). He finally made it to the office around 9:30. I saw him pull up and opened the door to politely encourage him to speed. He asks, "So, this is the place?" and I answer with a yes, a hand gesture to come in and say, "Yep, come this way." I went to my office just down the hall and he followed just behind leaving the door to our office wide open.
When he sat down, his hair was not brushed, his eyes were swollen, the top button of his shirt was not buttoned, the buttons just above his cuffs on his shirt were not buttoned and his tie was not snug. He then began to make some excuses as to why he was late saying that he was wrapped up in something (he gave an exact thing, but I do not remember what he said as I was rather embarrassed and ticked off at this point). Ms. B looked at me with her eyes a bit wide and then rolled them. We mentioned several times that Ms. B was supposed to be at work around 9:00. He apologized for being late again and then starts with the package. I asked to see her copies so that I could look over everything. He filled out the Hold Harmless Agreement and the Authorization to Disburse and Record Documents pausing along the way to tell us about a closing he had at 9:30 the night before. Ms. B was again getting agitated. I explained to the borrower that page 5 of the closing instructions was showing that her current mortgage and two Chase credit cards were being paid off. This seemed to be a good enough explanation for the attorney since he did not elaborate on the closing instructions. He continues through obviously trying to figure out what each page was as he went and throwing in some antidotes along the way. The borrower was obviously peeved by this and asked if she needed to sign the next piece of paper to get him moving through the package again. He then took a phone call so I handed the borrower a few of the papers and explained what they were since he was offering no to little explanation on everything. He thanked me for the help once he was off the phone. He then continued to hand her papers and I would throw in my small bit of explanation as to what they were. I felt this was a good solution because when the borrower asked the attorney what page 1 of the Home Equity Line of Credit Agreement and Disclosure was and what she was signing, he could offer no explanation. I told her that it was similar to a Good Faith Estimate on a "regular loan" and showed her where the fees were and that the 3rd party fees were $494.25 and that XYZ Equity was paying those. When we reached the end of the closing, there was a note for 6.125% for a property in California at the end. He looked at it and asked the borrower to start initialing. I took it from him before she signed it to make sure it was something concerning an equity line rather than an equity loan since the 6.125% did not make any sense for the borrower’s HELOC. I then discovered that it was the wrong property and that the copies for the borrower did not have the note included. I tried to call two XYZ Equity reps. I reached one and explained that we had the wrong note and that we needed the package emailed immediately to have it signed so that the borrower, who was over an hour late at work by this point, could leave. Between phone calls and waiting to hear back for a few minutes, I made copies of the signed package. Then, the attorney excused himself to use the restroom. (I found out after he left, that during his trip to the restroom he was incapable of lifting a toilet seat or having appropriate aim since there was urine all over the office toilet.) While he was gone, Ms. B makes the comment to me that he is obviously on drugs since he was shaking very noticeably. Also, she informed me that she wanted to leave and do this another time because she did not want to close with this attorney. I assured her it would be over quickly. Once he returned from the restroom, he seemed to feel a bit better since the shaking was not nearly as strong or noticeable. After he comes back and I then get a call from another XYZ Equity representative with the title company on the line also. We go through trying to figure out why the note was wrong and finally figure out that the note was not supposed to be there at all since it was for a fixed rate rather than a HELOC. After getting off the phone with the XYZ Equity representative around 10:20, the attorney pipes up to repeat what he has heard. Paraphrased, it was that the note didn't go with this package since it was an equity line and that the mortgage signed already served that purpose. Before getting off the phone with the XYZ rep., I made sure that Ms. B did not need to sign anything else and could leave. Once I was given the OK, I told her to go ahead to work.