Ohio goes after mortgage servicing firms: lessons you can learn

You have to give it to the attorney general of Ohio. The dude's got ... well ... he's just got 'em.

One by one, step by step, he has been going after mortgage servicing companies. These are the firms that collect monthly loan payments and also manage foreclosures.

Just since this past summer, Richard Cordray has brought suit against both Carrington Mortgage Services and American Home Mortgage Servicing.

Now, he has turned his attention to HomeEq, a unit of Barclays Capital. He claims the firm is "using unfair and deceptive agreements and violating state consumer law," according to a Reuters dispatch.

Among other things, the Ohio AG alleges that HomEq came up with schemes that "released itself of all liabilities and required borrowers to waive their rights to defenses and pay more fees," says the Reuters report.

For its part, a HomEq spokesman dismisses the suit as "meritless" and vows an aggressive defense.