How to make claim against a title agent's bond.

 To make a claim against a Maryland title agent's bond with the Maryland Insurance Administration (MIA), you'll need to follow a specific process. Title agents in Maryland are required to maintain bonds to protect consumers and ensure they fulfill their obligations. A lawyer can be helpful, but one is not necessary. You can go it alone before making the decision to hire counsel. Here's how you can proceed:

1. Gather Documentation: Collect all relevant documentation related to your claim. This might include contracts, invoices, correspondence, and any evidence that supports your claim.

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3. Contact the Title Agent: Before filing a claim, it's a good idea to reach out to the title agent directly to discuss the issue and see if it can be resolved amicably. Sometimes, misunderstandings or errors can be corrected without the need for a bond claim.

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5. Verify the Bond: Make sure the title agent has a bond with the MIA. You can do this by contacting the Maryland Insurance Administration or checking their website. Ensure that the bond is current and covers the specific circumstances of your claim.

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7. Complete the Claim Form: Visit the Maryland Insurance Administration's website and download the appropriate bond claim form. They may have specific forms for title agent bond claims.

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9. Provide Supporting Documentation: Fill out the claim form accurately and completely. Attach all relevant documentation that supports your claim. This may include contracts, invoices, receipts, emails, or any other evidence.

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11. Submit the Claim: Send the completed claim form and supporting documents to the Maryland Insurance Administration. Make sure you follow the submission instructions provided on their website or in the claim form.

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13. Wait for Processing: The MIA will review your claim and may conduct an investigation. They will communicate with both parties involved in the dispute and gather necessary information.

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15. Resolution: Depending on the outcome of their investigation, the MIA will determine whether the title agent's bond should cover your claim. If approved, the bond will be used to compensate you for your losses.

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17. Appeal (if necessary): If your claim is denied and you believe it was wrongfully rejected, you may have the option to appeal the decision. Check the MIA's guidelines for the appeals process.

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19. Legal Assistance (if needed): If the dispute remains unresolved and you believe you have a strong case, you may want to consider consulting an attorney with expertise in insurance or real estate law for further guidance.

Extend your neighbor a hand, not a bullet.

 Brian Ford was shot by his Florida neighbor while trimming trees along their shared property line. Read the full news article, here. 

This is an extreme example of boundary disputes gone horribly wrong. Our Firm has been, and continues to be involved in neighbor disputes over boundaries and overhanging trees, extended flower and crop beds, and encroaching pools, decks and bow windows. Each and every one a potential flash point for violent confrontation between otherwise law abiding folk.

In one long-ago case, I was walking through a client's wooded lot in one of Maryland's more rural Counties. The purpose of my visit was to eyeball a "logging road" that was in dispute. A neighbor claimed rights to use the logging road for development of multiple subdivided lots. My client believed that the intended logging road was located elsewhere, or had disappeared, as historical facts demonstrated that logging roads move over time, with logging operations. 

It was late afternoon and I was casually crunching through the underbrush in search of a discernible path. I stopped immediately upon hearing the "click" of a shotgun being chambered and cocked behind me. 

"Who the **ck are you?" bellowed my inquisitor.

"I'm the lawyer for the owner of this land...I have permission to be here!" I squeeked (in the most authoritative voice I could muster in that instant).

My heart beat once, then twice, a bird chirped, and then...

"Aw, heck, you're MY lawyer!"

And we had a hearty laugh, a handshake, and a nervous discussion about shooting lawyers out-of-season.

George Washington wrote that personal freedom and property rights are inseparable. The more visceral reaction many like the shooter in the Florida have to any perceived encroachment speaks to how deeply this concept is embedded. Inherent decency and problem solving learned through the social institutions of family, school, church and community should, and often does buffer such an immediate and deadly adverse reaction. As lawyers, we seek to channel such disputes away from violent confrontation to alternate dispute resolution in forums like mediation, arbitration or trial.

It is cheaper to engage a civil litigator than to hire a criminal defense attorney.

Invest in Baltimore, but avoid the wholesaler scam.

 Wholesaling is a general term used to describe several variations on one theme- the purchase and sale of real property with other people's money. Long considered the bottom rung of the real estate ladder, desperate owners surrender their equity to those who quickly sell the contract to another. In this second transaction the wholesaler receives an assignment fee from the buyer. This assignment fee is made possible by the low contract price to the original owner, and represents the owner
's surrender of equity to the flipper.

ABC Capital Baltimore, LLC and its vast family of alphabet-soup related entities have added a thick layer of fraud to this old business model.

Severance packages now untethered from non-disparagement and non-disclosure requirements.

 On February 21, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board declared it unlawful for employers to condition employee severance packages on return promises of secrecy and non-disparagement. The case is called  McLaren Macomb and Local 40 RN Staff Council,Office and Professional Employees, International Union (OPEIU), AFL–CIO. Case 07–CA–263041, and it concerned the following language that many of us have learned to take for granted in severance packages:

Seller's Death-grip on your Buyer's earnest money deposit in Maryland

 Many residential real estate contracts fall through, and don't make closing. Months after the buyer put down an earnest money deposit (often referred to as "EMD), some aspect of the deal has caused the buyer to back out. 

Real estate contracts fail for a variety of reasons, and not all due to fault by one party or the other. Title issues, inspection reports, and failed financing are just a number of legitimate reasons for a buyer to cancel a contract. All that remains is for the seller's broker or settlement company to return the buyer's deposit.

But wait. What if the seller, through inattention or spite, doesn't authorize release of the deposit? This is a common situation, representing a practical defect in Maryland's rules concerning residential real estate transactions.

The problem is rooted in a rule that says release of an EMD requires a form executed by both buyer and seller. The practical effect of a seller's inattention or spite is to withhold buyer's EMD, and deprive the buyer of use of that money- for a new purchase, perhaps, or even needed living expanse.

To compel release of the EMD the buyer must initiate time-consuming mediation. This is a process that takes 45-90 days. Meanwhile, the withholding seller might exercise its superior negotiating position to negotiate a hold-back, seeking to retain a portion of the EMD for itself. 

Adding to the inequity of the current paradigm, a negotiated resolution that procures the seller's signature on the form often compels buyer to grant broad release language favoring seller. In situations where the settlement may have arguably failed for seller's fault, a buyer with its own exigencies might feel pressured to grant the release in order to liberate the EMD,

The solution is very simple-- Maryland's General Assembly should pass a bill eliminating need for seller's consent on the existing form. The retention of the EMD creates a grossly unbalanced relationship where legitimate disputes exist between buyers and sellers. Under the current system, it is conceivable that buyer's EMD could remain in seller's constructive custody for months as a dispute wends through mediation and litigation. 

Under the current system, an escrow agent- the settlement company or seller's broker- may elect to interplead the EMD in either the District Court of Maryland, or a Circuit Court,. The costs of interpleader are shifted to the buyer and seller, and the fund may continue to be held in the registry of the court, or in the account of the escrow agent.

The current system requires one party to a broken deal to mediation/negotiate/litigate with one hand tied behind its back-- the value of the EMD is locked up and made unavailable for the canceling buyer to make a new contract, or to pay the costs of reaching resolution of the underlying dispute.

Maryland can do better, Affordable housing, and a robust real estate market depend on the free flow of capital. Changes to EMD retention rules are long overdue.