A federal court authorized this notice. This is not a solicitation from a lawyer.

Transcription

1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA A class action settlement may affect your rights IF you previously had a home loan that was serviced by Ocwen while you were enrolled in a weekly or bi-weekly payment program sponsored by ACI Worldwide, Inc. A federal court authorized this notice. This is not a solicitation from a lawyer. A class action settlement (the Settlement ) has been preliminarily approved in Begley v. Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC, case number 3:16-cv-149-MCR-CJK, pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida (the Action ). Plaintiffs John and Carrie Begley ( Plaintiffs ) and defendant Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC ( Ocwen ) are the Parties, and together they have proposed the Settlement. If final approval is entered by the Court, the Settlement offers relief to and will affect the rights of all members of the Settlement Class. If this Notice was addressed to you then, according to Ocwen s records, you are a member of the Settlement Class. This Notice provides you with a summary of the claims made in the Action and the terms of the Settlement, and also describes your legal rights and options. Capitalized terms used in this document are explained below and defined in the full Settlement, titled Stipulation of Settlement and Release, which is available for review at a website established to provide you more detailed information about the Settlement. Please read this notice carefully because your legal rights may be affected whether you act or don t act. YOUR LEGAL OPTIONS & RIGHTS IN THIS SETTLEMENT EXCLUDE YOURSELF OBJECT GO TO THE FAIRNESS HEARING DO NOTHING If you exclude yourself you will receive nothing from the Settlement, but you will not be bound by it and you will not be part of the Settlement Class. This is the only choice that will allow you to keep your right to sue Ocwen on your own about the claims in the Action. Section 12 explains what you need to do to exclude yourself, and the deadline for doing so. You may write to the Court about any objections you have to the Settlement. However, persons who exclude themselves from the Settlement Class cannot object. Section 17 explains what you need to do to object, and the deadline for doing so. As explained in Section 19, the Court has set a Fairness Hearing for November 20, 2017, beginning at 9:00 a.m. (Central Time), to consider final approval of the Settlement. If you file a written objection to the Settlement, Section 21 explains how you may ask the Court to speak at the Fairness Hearing about your objection. Persons who exclude themselves from the Settlement Class cannot speak at the Fairness Hearing. If you do nothing and the Settlement is given final approval by the Court, you will remain a member of the Settlement Class. Any loan that you had that was enrolled in an ACI weekly or ACI bi-weekly payment plan while being serviced by Ocwen, but then was paid off, refinanced, charged off, or terminated and canceled while being serviced by Ocwen will be reviewed pursuant to the Audit and Remediation Protocol explained below to determine the extent to which you are due any Account Adjustment, as described in Sections 6-8. These rights and options and the deadlines to exercise them are explained in this Notice. The Court still has to decide whether to give final approval to the Settlement. Settlement relief will only be provided if the Court finally approves the Settlement and after any appeals are resolved. Please be patient as the settlement process will take several months. 1. Why did I get this notice? BASIC INFORMATION If this Notice was addressed to you, then according to Ocwen s records you previously had a home loan that was serviced for some period of time by Ocwen on its REALServicing system while you were enrolled in a weekly or biweekly payment program sponsored by ACI Worldwide, Inc. ( ACI ). Questions? Call , or visit Page 1

2 The Court sent you this Notice because you have a right to know about a proposed Settlement of this Action, and your options under that Settlement. This Notice describes the lawsuit, the Settlement, your legal rights, what relief is being offered to you, how that relief will be distributed and other important information. This Notice only summarizes the full Settlement, which is available for review at If there is any conflict between this Notice and the Settlement, the Settlement governs. You should review the Settlement before deciding what to do. Please share this Notice with any co-borrower(s) on your loan(s). 2. What is this lawsuit about? The Plaintiffs allege that Ocwen failed to properly credit certain weekly and bi-weekly mortgage payments made by borrowers under weekly and bi-weekly payment plans offered and administered by ACI Worldwide, Inc., a company that is not part of Ocwen. Under these plans, ACI would collect payments from borrowers and remit them to Ocwen. The payments at issue are weekly and bi-weekly payments made through ACI while a loan was being serviced by Ocwen on the REALServicing loan servicing platform (the ACI Loans ). Under an ACI weekly payment plan, a borrower was expected to pay ¼ of his or her monthly payment each week. In four months out of the year, 5 weekly payments would be made in a given month instead of 4. Similarly, under an ACI bi-weekly payment plan, a borrower was expected to pay ½ of his or her monthly payment every other week, and in 2 months out of the year, 3 bi-weekly payments would be made in a given month instead of 2. The 5th weekly payment made in a single month under an ACI weekly plan, and the 3rd ACI bi-weekly payment under an ACI bi-weekly plan, are called ACI Extra Payments for purposes of the Settlement. If the borrower made all ACI payments on schedule and no other unpaid fees, charges, or escrow deficiencies existed under the ACI Loan, then these ACI Extra Payments were supposed to be applied to reduce the borrower s loan principal balance. This would reduce the amount on which interest would be calculated for the remaining term of the ACI Loan. Over time, if all ACI payments were consistently made as and when scheduled, these ACI plans would significantly reduce the total interest the borrower would pay over the life of the loan and allow the borrower to pay the loan off sooner than if the borrower simply paid his or her regular payment once each month. Plaintiffs allege that the REALServicing loan servicing system used by Ocwen was not fully compatible with the ACI weekly and bi-weekly payment plans, such that even when all ACI payments were made as and when scheduled, ACI Extra Payments were placed first into a suspense account and then eventually applied towards future monthly payments not yet due on the ACI Loan instead of applying those ACI Extra Payments immediately to reduce the ACI Loan s principal balance (the alleged Extra Payment Processing Issue ). While this payment application would still have allowed a borrower to pay off his or her ACI Loan earlier than making only the scheduled contractual payments, Plaintiffs claim that the alleged Extra Payment Processing Issue prevented ACI Loans from paying off as quickly as contemplated by the ACI weekly and bi-weekly payment plans, and resulted in more interest being paid by the borrower than intended by the ACI weekly and bi-weekly plans. Therefore, Plaintiffs filed a lawsuit seeking injunctive relief and damages for breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, unjust enrichment, negligence, and violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. Ocwen denies Plaintiffs claims of wrongdoing or liability against it, and among other things asserts that if any ACI Extra Payment misapplications occurred, they were the result of bona fide errors, and that monthly statements sent to the borrower showed how payments were applied and gave borrowers the opportunity to contact Ocwen if they did not agree with those payment applications. Ocwen contends that even if REALServicing did initially misapply some ACI Extra Payments, many would have been corrected manually thereafter, in response to customer inquiry or pursuant to Ocwen s own actions. Ocwen further claims that the terms of loan documents executed by persons included within the Settlement Class generally provide that borrowers should expressly indicate in writing when they intend extra payments to be applied as payments of principal, which Ocwen contends did not happen with respect to the some or all of the payments at issue in this case. Section 23 explains how you may obtain more information about Plaintiffs claims in this Action and Ocwen s response to those claims. You can also visit to review Plaintiffs operative complaint and the Settlement Agreement. 3. Why is this lawsuit a class action? In a class action, one or more people, called class representatives (here Plaintiffs Robert and Carrie Begley), sue on behalf of all other people who have similar claims. Together, all of these people are called a class, and the persons in it are called class members. In a class action, one court resolves the claims of all class members, except for those who ask in writing to be excluded from the class. The Honorable M. Casey Rodgers of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida is in charge of all aspects of this case, and has already given preliminarily approval to the Settlement. Nevertheless, because the Settlement will determine the rights of the Settlement Class, all of the Settlement Class Members must be sent Notice before the Court can consider entering final approval of the Settlement and making it effective. The Court has conditionally certified the Settlement Class for settlement purposes only. If the Settlement is not given final approval, or fails to reach the Final Settlement Date, or is terminated by the Parties for any of the reasons set forth in Section 11 of the Settlement Agreement, the Settlement will become void, the Settlement Class will no longer remain certified, and the Action will proceed as if there had been no Settlement and no certification of the Settlement Class. Questions? Call , or visit Page 2

3 4. Why is there a Settlement? The Court has not decided whether Plaintiffs or Ocwen should win this case. Instead, both sides agreed to the Settlement before any judgment was entered in the case in order to avoid the uncertainties and expenses of ongoing litigation, and the delays of a trial and possible appeals, while providing Settlement Class Members with definite benefits now rather than, if at all, years from now. Plaintiffs and their attorneys ( Class Counsel ) believe the Settlement is in the best interests of the Settlement Class because it offers such relief now, while at the same time allowing anyone who wishes to pursue their own individual claims against Ocwen to exclude themselves from the Settlement Class. WHO IS IN THE SETTLEMENT 5. How do I know if I am part of the Settlement? The Court decided that everyone who fits the following description is a member of the Settlement Class: All persons who were borrowers on home mortgage loans on which any payments were made to Ocwen under a weekly or biweekly accelerated payoff program administered by ACI while those loans were being serviced by Ocwen on the REALServicing loan servicing platform. Excluded from the Settlement Class are: (a) Ocwen s board members and executive level officers; (b) persons who timely and properly exclude themselves from the Settlement Class (see Section 12); (c) persons who, as of June 15, 2017, are in active bankruptcy proceedings; and (d) all federal judges, their spouses, and persons within the third degree of relationship to them. As noted on page 1, if this Notice was addressed to you, then according to Ocwen s records, you are a member of the Settlement Class. 6. What relief does the Settlement provide? WHAT YOU CAN GET UNDER THE SETTLEMENT The Settlement offers a 100% accounting remedy to Settlement Class Members to make sure all of the payments they made under an ACI weekly or ACI bi-weekly plan were properly applied while their ACI Loans were being serviced on Ocwen s REALServicing system, and to correct any misapplications that occurred during that time. This process will correct any economic impact to Settlement Class Members ACI Loans from any previously uncorrected misapplication of any payments caused by the alleged Extra Payment Processing Issue. According to Ocwen s records, you were a borrower on an ACI Loan with a Paid-Off Status, that is, an ACI Loan that was paid-off, refinanced, terminated and cancelled or charged off while being serviced by Ocwen on REALServicing. If that is correct, the payment history of your ACI Loan will automatically be reviewed pursuant to the Audit and Remediation Protocol established under the Settlement. Any payments that were not applied correctly while your ACI Loan was enrolled in an ACI weekly or ACI bi-weekly payment plan and was being serviced on REALServicing will be reversed and reapplied correctly, as of the date each such payment was originally made. Then any amount that was previously collected by Ocwen at the actual date of payoff in excess of this re-calculated payoff amount will be paid to you as your ACI Loan s Account Adjustment. The alleged Extra Payment Processing Issue would potentially impact the processing of only some not all borrowers ACI Extra Payments. Which ACI Extra Payments might have been affected, and the nature and amount of any Account Adjustment that would be available as a result, depends upon a variety of factors, including among other things your actual payment history, the length of time you were enrolled in and compliant with an ACI weekly or bi-weekly payment plan, the number of ACI Extra Payments you made on your ACI Loan while it was being serviced on REALServicing, the status of your ACI Loan at the time each of your ACI Extra Payments were made, and the date you paid off your ACI Loan. Therefore, it is impossible to estimate in advance whether you will be entitled to any Account Adjustment, or what amount of Account Adjustment relief you may be entitled to receive. This Notice is intended only for persons whose loans were paid off, refinanced, terminated and cancelled, or charged off while being serviced by Ocwen. If you have a loan that does not fit that description, please contact the Settlement Administrator at to make sure you receive the correct class notice for your loan. 7. How can I get such relief? As long as you do not exclude yourself from the Settlement Class, your ACI Loan(s) with a Paid-Off Status as identified from Owen s records will be reviewed pursuant to the Audit and Remediation Protocol to determine whether you are entitled to any Account Adjustment(s). Therefore, you do not need to take further action in order to have your loan evaluated for an Account Adjustment. Under no circumstances will persons whose loans were previously paid off owe any money to Ocwen as a result of the Audit and Remediation Protocol or the Account Adjustment. Please note that each ACI Loan that qualifies for an Account Adjustment will be entitled to only one Account Adjustment. Co-debtors, joint-debtors and multiple borrowers on a single ACI Loan are not each entitled to receive separate Account Adjustments on the same ACI Loan. Also, if you have other ACI Loans that were serviced by Ocwen that do not have a Paid-Off Status, you may be required to submit a Claim Form for Account Adjustment relief with respect to those other loans. If Ocwen s records indicate that you have such other ACI Loans, you will be sent a separate notice explaining what actions you need to take to seek Account Adjustment relief with respect to those other loans. Questions? Call , or visit Page 3

4 8. When would I get such relief and how will it be distributed to me? The Court will hold a hearing on November 20, 2017 to decide whether to grant final approval to the Settlement. The Court must finally approve the Settlement before any relief will be distributed, and will only do so if it finds that the Settlement is fair, reasonable and adequate. In addition, any final approval order the Court may enter may be subject to appeals. If there are any such appeals, resolving them takes time sometimes more than a year. Finally, there remains a possibility that this Settlement may be terminated for other reasons, such as those set forth in Section 11 of the Settlement Agreement itself (which is available for review at Please be patient. If the Settlement is given final approval and/or after any appeals have been resolved in favor of the Settlement, Account Adjustments are expected to be calculated and distributed within three hundred and fifteen (315) days of the Final Settlement Date. The settlement website will be updated from time to time to reflect the process and status of this case and the Settlement. Any Account Adjustment determined to be due you on an ACI Loan with a Paid-Off Status will be paid out to you by check, made payable jointly to all Settlement Class Members identified in Ocwen s records as borrowers on your ACI Loan. The check will be mailed to the primary borrower on that ACI Loan as determined from Ocwen s records. NOTE: All checks will expire and become void 120 days after they are issued, and be considered unclaimed funds. Unclaimed funds will be considered a waiver by you of the right to receive such relief, and will be paid to Homes for Our Troops, a privately funded 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that builds homes for U.S. veterans. 9. Will the Settlement have any tax consequences on me? Neither the Court nor the Parties (including their counsel) can advise you about what, if any, tax consequences might arise for you from the Settlement. You are encouraged to consult with your own tax advisor to determine whether any potential tax consequences could arise from your receipt of the relief the Settlement offers. 10. Am I giving anything up by remaining in the Settlement Class? Unless you exclude yourself, you will remain in the Settlement Class, and that means that if the Settlement is given final approval and reaches the Final Settlement Date then you will be releasing claims, as follows: In consideration for the Settlement benefits described in this Agreement, the Begleys and the other members of the Settlement Class who do not timely and validly request to be excluded from the Settlement, on behalf of themselves and all of their present, former and future heirs, guardians, assigns, executors, administrators, representatives, agents, attorneys, partners, legatees, predecessors, and/or successors, will, by virtue of this Agreement and by virtue of the Court s Final Order and Judgment, (1) be deemed to have fully, finally and forever released, remised, relinquished, acquitted, and forever discharged, each and all of the Released Parties of and from, and shall be permanently enjoined from pursuing, any and all actual, potential, filed or unfiled, known or unknown, fixed or contingent, suspected or unsuspected, claims, demands, liabilities, damages (including but not limited to punitive, exemplary, multiple or statutory damages), charges, penalties, losses, rights, actions, causes of action, expenses, costs, attorneys fees, suits, judgments or other avenues of relief, whether arising at law, in equity, by regulation, or otherwise, whether direct, individual or representative, and whether or not previously asserted, mature or not yet mature, known or unknown, suspected or unsuspected, contingent or non-contingent; whether assertable in the form of a cause of action or as a private motion, petition for relief or claim for contempt, or otherwise, and in any court, tribunal, arbitration panel, commission, agency, or before any governmental and/or administrative body, or any other adjudicatory body, and whether based on federal, state, local, statutory or common law or any other law, rule, regulation, ordinance, code, contract, common law, or any other source, including the law of any jurisdiction outside the United States (including both direct and derivative claims) against the Released Parties, or any of them, arising or resulting in whole or in part from any applications or misapplications of any payments made to Ocwen on any ACI Loan while the loan was being serviced by Ocwen on the REALServicing loan servicing platform, or resulting in whole or in part from any loan information contained in any written statements or notices sent to the borrower or anyone else concerning an ACI Loan as a result of those payment applications or misapplications, including but not limited to the claims made in the Operative Complaint; and (2) be deemed to have fully, finally and forever ratified Ocwen s application of all payments made on an ACI Loan on or before the date of entry of the Court s Final Order and Judgment while the ACI Loan was being serviced on REALServicing, as modified by any Account Adjustments that are awarded pursuant to the terms of this Settlement. The Released Parties are further specifically released from any and all liability arising directly or indirectly or in whole or in part from, or relating in any way to Ocwen s application or misapplication of payments made by a Settlement Class Member under one of the ACI Worldwide, Inc. weekly or bi-weekly accelerated payoff programs while his or her loan was being serviced by Ocwen on the REALServicing loan servicing platform, and from any claims arising in whole or in part from the termination of the ACI programs. However, nothing herein will release any claim that, any fee, late fee, escrow or insurance charge was improperly assessed, charged or imposed on any individual ACI Loan for reasons entirely unrelated to the Extra Payment Processing Issue. Questions? Call , or visit Page 4

5 This release will include claims that Settlement Class Members do not know or suspect to exist in their favor at the time final approval may be granted to the Settlement, if those claims arise from, are based on, or relate to the Released Claims. If the Settlement is given final approval and reaches the Final Settlement Date, all Settlement Class Members will be deemed to have knowingly and voluntarily waived, relinquished and released the protections of any laws that would limit this release, including, without limitation, Section 1542 of the California Civil Code, which provides: A GENERAL RELEASE DOES NOT EXTEND TO CLAIMS WHICH THE CREDITOR DOES NOT KNOW OR SUSPECT TO EXIST IN HIS OR HER FAVOR AT THE TIME OF EXECUTING THE RELEASE, WHICH IF KNOWN BY HIM OR HER MUST HAVE MATERIALLY AFFECTED HIS OR HER SETTLEMENT WITH THE DEBTOR. The phrase Released Parties means and refers to: Ocwen and any and all of its current or former predecessors, successors, assigns, parent corporations, subsidiaries, divisions, related and affiliated companies and entities, associates, vendors, service providers, software licensors and licensees, clients and customers, principals, stockholders, directors, officers, partners, principals, members, employees, attorneys, consultants, independent contractors, representatives and agents, transferee servicers, and all individuals or entities acting by, through, under or in concert with any of them. The full terms of the Release are set forth in Section 8 of the Settlement Agreement, which is available for review at Does the Settlement have any current effect on Settlement Class Members? The Court has issued a preliminary injunction against the Settlement Class Members, barring the initiation of any new, or the continued prosecution of any existing, lawsuit(s) against Ocwen based on or relating to the Released Claims, pending a decision by the Court on whether to grant final approval to the Settlement. The relevant text of the Court s preliminary injunction, reproduced from the Court s order granting preliminary approval to the Settlement, is as follows: Accordingly, in order to preserve the Court s jurisdiction pending consideration of whether final approval should be given to the Agreement, and to avoid irreparable harm to the settlement process, and after balancing the equities and concluding that the Agreement is sufficiently fair, reasonable and adequate that it is due to be preliminarily approved and should be protected from collateral attack during the notice and final approval process, the Court hereby preliminarily bars and enjoins all Settlement Class Members from: (a) instituting, maintaining, prosecuting, intervening in, participating as a party or class member in, or otherwise pursuing or receiving any benefits from any other action other than this Action asserting any claims that would be Released Claims under the terms of the Settlement, unless they first exclude themselves from the Settlement Class in accordance with the terms of this Order; and (b) from filing, commencing, maintaining, or prosecuting any lawsuit asserting claims within the scope of the proposed Release set forth in the Settlement as a class action, as a separate class, or as a representative action for purposes of pursuing (including by seeking to amend a pending complaint to include class allegations or by seeking class certification in a pending action in any jurisdiction) on behalf of any other Settlement Class Members any of the claims within the scope of the proposed Release contained in the Settlement, whether or not they have excluded themselves from the Settlement Class. A complete copy of the Court s order of preliminary approval is available at and the terms of the Release are described in Section 10 above. EXCLUDING YOURSELF FROM THE SETTLEMENT 12. How do I exclude myself from the Settlement Class? If you don t want to be part of the Settlement, or if you want to keep the right to sue or continue suing Ocwen on your own about the Released Claims, then you must take steps to exclude yourself from the Settlement Class. This is called excluding yourself, or opting out. If you exclude yourself from the Settlement Class, you will not be bound by the Settlement and will not receive any relief offered by the Settlement, but you will be free to pursue your own individual lawsuit regarding the Released Claims if you wish to do so. However, the Court has ruled that neither the Settlement, nor this Notice, nor the Court s preliminary approval order may be used as evidence in such individual lawsuits. To exclude yourself, you must mail a letter sufficiently in advance to be received by the Settlement Administrator no later than October 16, 2017, saying that you want to be excluded from the Settlement Class. Your letter must be addressed to Begley v. Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC, c/o Class-Settlement.com, P.O. Box 9009, Hicksville, NY , and must: (a) contain a caption or title that identifies it as Request for Exclusion in Begley v. Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC (case number 3:16-cv-149-MCR-CJK); (b) include your name, mailing and addresses, and contact telephone number; (c) specify that you want to be excluded from the Settlement Class and identify the loan number(s) for which you seek exclusion from the Settlement; and (d) be personally signed by you. NOTE: If your request for exclusion is late or incomplete, it will not be valid and you will remain part of the Settlement Class, you will still be bound by the Settlement and all other orders and judgments in this case, and you will not be able to participate in any other lawsuits against Ocwen and the Released Parties based on the Released Claims. If you submit a request for exclusion, it will be deemed as a request for exclusion by you and any other codebtors, joint-debtors and multiple borrowers on your ACI Loan(s). Questions? Call , or visit Page 5

6 13. If I don t exclude myself, can I sue Ocwen later for the same thing? No. If you do not exclude yourself from the Settlement Class and the Settlement is given final approval and reaches the Final Settlement Date, you will give up the right to sue Ocwen and the Released Parties for the Released Claims. 14. If I exclude myself, can I get anything from this Settlement? No. If you exclude yourself, you will not be eligible to receive any of the benefits that the Settlement offers. 15. Do I have a lawyer in this case? THE LAWYERS REPRESENTING YOU Yes, the Court has appointed Bryan F. Aylstock of the law firm of Aylstock, Witkin, Kries & Overholtz, PLLC, Richard M. Golomb and Kenneth J. Grunfeld of the law firm of Golomb & Honick, PC, Joseph H. Aughtman of the Aughtman Law Firm, LLC, and Aaron C. Hemmings of the law firm of Hemmings & Stevens, PLLC to represent you and the other Settlement Class Members in this Action and for purposes of this Settlement, and for no other purpose. These attorneys are called Class Counsel. You will not be separately charged for the services of Class Counsel. You have the right to retain your own separate lawyer to represent you in this case, but you are not obligated to do so. If you do hire your own lawyer, you will be solely responsible for all of his or her fees and expenses. You also have the right to represent yourself before the Court without a lawyer, but if you want to appear at the Fairness Hearing you must comply with the procedures set forth in Section 21 below. 16. How will Class Counsel Be Paid? Class Counsel have prosecuted this case on a contingent-fee basis and so far have not yet been paid anything for their services. If the Settlement is approved, Class Counsel will ask the Court for Attorneys Fees and Expenses of up to $2,000,000 to be paid separately and in addition to the Account Adjustment relief offered to the Settlement Class. Class Counsel will also request a Service Award for the Plaintiffs of up to $5,000 payable to them jointly for their services as class representatives and their efforts in bringing the Action, to also be paid separately and in addition to the Account Adjustment relief offered to the Settlement Class. Class Counsel will file with the Court and post on their request for Attorneys Fees and Expenses and a Service Award on or before October 2, The Settlement, however, is not conditioned on the Court approving any specific amount of Attorneys Fees and Expenses or Service Award. The Court will ultimately determine whether any Attorneys Fees and Expenses should be awarded Class Counsel or any Service Award awarded to the Plaintiffs, and in what amounts. The Court may approve the Settlement while awarding less than the amounts requested by Class Counsel and Plaintiffs. OBJECTING TO THE SETTLEMENT 17. How do I tell the Court that I don t like the Settlement? If you do not exclude yourself from the Settlement Class, you can object to the Settlement if you don t agree with any part of it. You can provide reasons why you think the Court should deny approval of the Settlement by filing an objection. However, you can t ask the Court to order a larger or different type of settlement as the Court can only approve or deny the Settlement presented by the Parties. If the Court denies approval, no settlement relief will be available to the Settlement Class Members and the lawsuit will continue. If you file a written objection, the Court will consider your views. To object, you must file a written statement of objection with the Court. Your written objection must: (a) include a caption or title that identifies it as Objection to Class Settlement in Begley v. Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC (case number 3:16-cv-149-MCR-CJK); (b) include your name, mailing and addresses, contact telephone number, and your loan number(s); (c) set forth the specific reason(s), if any, for each of your objections, including all legal support you wish to bring to the Court s attention and all factual evidence you wish to introduce in support of your objection; (d) disclose the name and contact information of any and all attorneys representing, advising, or in any way assisting you in connection with the preparation or submission of your objection and (e) be personally signed by you. You may file your written statement of objection in person at any location of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida, or you may mail it postmarked to the Clerk of the Court, United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida, Winston E. Arnow Federal Building, 100 North Palafox Street, Pensacola, Florida However, if you are represented by your own attorney, your attorney must file your objection through the Court s Case Management/Electronic Case Filing (CM/ECF) system. To be considered timely and valid, all written statements of objection must be filed with the Court by, or mailed sufficiently in advance to be received by the Court by October 16, Any Settlement Class Member who does not comply with the above deadline and requirements shall be deemed to have waived all objections to and shall be forever barred from challenging the Settlement. Questions? Call , or visit Page 6

7 18. What s the difference between objecting and excluding myself? Objecting simply means telling the Court that you don t agree with something about the Settlement, but that you are still willing to be bound by it if the Settlement is finally approved despite your objection. You can object only if you stay in the Settlement Class. Excluding yourself is telling the Court that you don t want to be part of the Settlement Class at all. If you exclude yourself, you will not be subject to the Settlement and therefore cannot object to the Settlement or appear at the Fairness Hearing because the case will no longer affect you. THE COURT S FAIRNESS HEARING 19. When and where will the Court decide whether to approve the Settlement? A Fairness Hearing has been set for November 20, 2017, beginning at 9:00 a.m. (Central Time), before the Honorable M. Casey Rodgers at the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida, Winston E. Arnow Federal Building, 100 North Palafox Street, Pensacola, Florida in Courtroom 2. At the hearing, the Court will consider whether to: (1) grant final certification to the Settlement Class for settlement purposes; (2) approve the Settlement as fair, reasonable, and adequate; and (3) award any Attorneys Fees and Expenses to Class Counsel and a Service Award to Plaintiffs. The Court will also consider any and all objections to the Settlement and any other issues relating to the Settlement. After the hearing, the Court will decide whether to approve the Settlement. It is not possible to predict how long the Court s decision will take. NOTE: The Court has reserved the right to change the date and/or time of the Fairness Hearing, or to continue it, without further notice. If you plan to attend the Fairness Hearing, you should confirm the date and time shortly before travelling to attend the hearing by checking or the Court s Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system at Do I have to come to the Fairness Hearing? No. Class Counsel will represent the Settlement Class at the Fairness Hearing. But you are welcome to come at your own expense. If you send an objection, you are not required to come to the Fairness Hearing to talk about it. As long as your written objection was timely filed and meets the other requirements described in Section 17 above, the Court will consider it. You may also hire and pay your own lawyer to attend the Fairness Hearing, but you are not required to do so. 21. May I speak at the Fairness Hearing? You may ask the Court for permission to speak at the Fairness Hearing, but only if you timely file a written objection in full compliance with the instructions set forth in Section 17, and if you also state in that objection that you would like to speak at the Fairness Hearing. However, any separate attorney you hire may appear only if he or she files through the Court s Case Management/Electronic Case Filing (CM/ECF) system a separate Notice of Intention to Appear in Begley v. Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC (case number 3:16-cv-149-MCR-CJK). That notice must be filed with the Court no later than October 16, You cannot speak at the Fairness Hearing if you have excluded yourself from the Settlement Class. 22. What if I do nothing? IF YOU DO NOTHING If you do nothing, and the Settlement is given final approval by the Court, any loan you had that was enrolled in an ACI weekly or ACI bi-weekly payment plan while being serviced by Ocwen on REALServicing, and was subsequently paid off, charged off, refinanced or terminated and cancelled while being serviced by Ocwen will still be reviewed pursuant to the Audit and Remediation Protocol to determine whether you are entitled to an Account Adjustment (see Sections 6-8 for a description of this process). You will also be bound by the Release, and therefore you will not be able to file your own lawsuit, continue with your own lawsuit, or be part of any other lawsuit against Ocwen and the Released Parties concerning any of the Released Claims. 23. Where can I get additional information? GETTING MORE INFORMATION This notice summarizes the proposed settlement. For the precise terms and conditions of the settlement, please see the Settlement Agreement available at by calling the toll-free number below, by accessing the Court docket in this case through the Court s Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system at or by visiting the office of the Clerk of the Court for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida, Winston E. Arnow Federal Building, 100 North Palafox Street, Pensacola, Florida 32502, between 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding Court holidays. PLEASE DO NOT TELEPHONE THE COURT, THE COURT CLERK S OFFICE, OR OCWEN TO INQUIRE ABOUT THIS SETTLEMENT. Questions? Call , or visit Page 7