Pending settlement reached in JPMorgan Chase class-action military mortgage lawsuit

Earlier this year, JPMorgan Chase admitted to improperly overcharging thousands of military service members on their mortgages and foreclosing on their homes. As the result of a class-action lawsuit filed in a federal court in Beaufort, South Carolina, JPMorgan has agreed to pay $56 million to settle those claims.

The pending settlement includes the following terms:

• A total of $27 million will be paid to approximately 6,000 active-duty service members who were overcharged on their mortgages, and will also be used to lower interest rates on their mortgages and to return homes that were improperly foreclosed on.
• Approximately $6 million in payments have already been made to service members who were overcharged on their mortgages.
• Approximately $6.4 million will be paid to service members who may have undergone ‘wrongful foreclosure practices.’
• Another $8 million will be paid in legal fees to the service members’ attorneys
• JPMorgan will be required to reduce interest rates on all deployed service members’ mortgages for one year to 4%
• All houses that were improperly foreclosed upon, but remain unsold, are to be returned.  
• For those houses already sold, JPMorgan will pay the service members the fair market value of the property.
• JPMorgan will forgive any outstanding mortgage balances for those service members who were improperly foreclosed upon.
• Any remaining unused funds will be donated to the charity of choice selected by the U.S. military.

The above-referenced terms have been agreed to by all the parties involved, however the final approval of the settlement has yet to be issued by U.S. District Judge Margaret B. Seymour.