Carrie Bay | 12.12.08

Walnut Creek, California-based National Loan Auditors (NLA), a company providing quality control, pre-close, and post-close auditing, risk assessment consulting and fraud prevention to the mortgage, legal, and banking industries, has partnered with Pensacola, Florida-based Gulf Coast Law Center to build a national attorney network that will allow NLA loan audits from any state to be validated with a legal opinion letter from a licensed attorney in that jurisdiction.

The network will give NLA audits state-specific legal validation and protect member law firms from practicing in non-licensed states, the firm explained in a press statement. Legal audits from NLA will provide lenders, servicers, hedge funds, and the government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) with accurate information to rely on when examining loans and supporting documentation for modification purposes or portfolio reassessment, the firm said.

"For very few billable hours, NLA saves attorneys numerous man hours that would be required to do one of these audits on a single case," said Gregory Wilhelm, former assistant attorney general and founder of Gulf Coast Law Center. "There is a synergy that the relationship between NLA and attorneys will create. NLA will save attorneys time and expenses through its audits and in return gain validation with an attorney-backed audit report. Our law firm is looking to partner with former government attorneys across state boundaries and through these partnerships, give NLA audits legal standing all over the nation."

Currently, NLA forensic loan audits with a legal opinion letter on federal violations are available nationally. State- or county-specific violations are available with a legal opinion letter in California, Florida, Alabama, and Michigan, with other states soon to be added. NLA will continue to add attorneys to their network and plans to have a legal network throughout all 50 states by early 2009, the company said.

"NLA is the only loan audit company that offers a legal opinion letter of our audit on a national level, endorsed by ex-attorney generals, assistant attorney generals, retired judges, and state-specific licensed attorneys," said August Blass, CEO of National Loan Auditors. "An audit without a legal opinion or licensed attorney as the author may not be accepted by a lender or the courts when determining violations and assessing risk. NLA provides a legal audit that lenders can take seriously and make accurate and informed decisions based on facts backed by legal opinions."

National Loan Auditors was founded to help lenders, hedge funds, private equity funds, attorneys, and loan modification professionals expose high-risk loans containing document errors, compliance errors, and underwriting errors. Gulf Coast Law Center provides legal representation for clients against fraudulent, abusive, and predatory business practices. The center represents victims of all types of fraud and enlists the services of only former government attorneys.