NEW YORK, NY—December 18, 2017—National trial firm Robins Kaplan LLP® has been court appointed as co-lead counsel on behalf of plaintiffs impacted by Wells Fargo’s acknowledged practice of wrongfully charging auto loan borrowers for unnecessary and duplicative auto insurance. A report by The New York Times uncovering the bank’s misconduct indicated that more than 800,000 customers were affected, and Wells Fargo has estimated that it will provide customers with at least $130 million in cash remediation and account adjustments.
“We are eager to vindicate the rights of borrowers who have endured financial harm, repossessions, and lasting credit damage as a result of Wells Fargo’s admitted scheme,” said Kellie Lerner, a partner with Robins Kaplan’s Antitrust and Trade Regulation group in New York, who is representing the plaintiffs.
In August of this year, Robins Kaplan filed one of the first complaints against Wells Fargo over its wrongful placement of unnecessary auto insurance charges on unsuspecting customers’ bills, alleging violations of federal racketeering, antitrust, and state consumer protection laws. That complaint and others followed a July exposé in The New York Times, which first revealed Wells Fargo’s problematic auto insurance billing practices and cited an internal bank report describing how wrongful charges had pushed approximately 274,000 customers into delinquency, among other alarming figures. In August, a group of seven U.S. Senators wrote to the bank, noting that they were “incredibly troubled” by its “predatory auto insurance scheme.”
Robins Kaplan initially filed suit on behalf of two Wells Fargo customers from Wisconsin who were wrongfully charged for duplicative auto insurance and whose car was ultimately repossessed. Their claims were consolidated with other lawsuits in the California federal court, which has now named Robins Kaplan co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs.
Roman Silberfeld, national trial chair and partner in Robins Kaplan’s Los Angeles office, is leading the firm’s representation of the plaintiffs. The team also includes Aaron Sheanin and Ben Steinberg.
The auto insurance litigation is pending before Judge Andrew Guilford in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. It is titled In re Wells Fargo Collateral Protection Insurance Litigation.
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