VIENNA, Va. –– Nationally renowned civil rights and personal injury attorneys Ben Crump and Adam Levitt filed a lawsuit on behalf of Black plaintiffs Laquita Oliver and Cherelle Jacob who sought home loans with defendant Navy Federal Credit Union. The lawsuit alleges that Oliver and Jacob’s denials for their home loans are due to Navy Federal’s discriminatory lending practices.
The suit alleges while drawing research insights from a recent CNN bombshell report, that Navy Federal, the country’s largest and most important credit union, systematically discriminates against would-be borrowers by race.
Plaintiffs Laquita Oliver and Cherelle Jacob sought home loans with Navy Federal. According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs, like many others, were denied home loans because of their race and suffered harm as a result. Navy Federal has approximately 13,000,000 members and more than $165 billion in assets, making it the country’s largest and most dominant credit union.
“The outright discrimination that occurs when Banking While Black continues to reveal itself in the lending practices of many of America’s largest financial institutions,” said Crump. “It is shameful that Navy Federal, an organization that prides itself in helping the families of men and women who served their country, does not give their Black and Latino customers the same opportunities as White customers.”
According to the recent CNN report, Navy Federal Credit Union approved 77% of the mortgage applications by white lenders, but only 56% of the applications from Latino applicants and 48% of the applications from Black applicants. The lawsuit states this disparity is the largest of any of the 50 largest home mortgage lenders in the U.S. and remains persistent, even accounting for more than a dozen separate variables including, among others, income, debt-to-income ratio, property value, down payment percentage, and neighborhood characteristics. The study also revealed that Navy Federal approved a higher percentage of applications from white borrowers making less than $62,000 a year than it did from Black borrowers making $140,000 or more.
“We hope this legal action will stop racial lending discrimination in its tracks and require Navy Federal to right their wrongs,” said Adam Levitt. “Home ownership is recognized as the cornerstone of the American Dream. We will not sit by while that dream is denied to hard-working and deserving Americans based on discriminatory practices and algorithms.”
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ABOUT BEN CRUMP LAW
Through his work, nationally renowned civil rights and personal injury attorney Ben Crump has spearheaded a legal movement to better protect the rights of marginalized citizens. He has led landscape-changing civil rights cases and represented clients in a wide range of areas including civil rights, personal injury, labor and employment, class actions, and more. Ben Crump Law is dedicated to holding the powerful accountable. For more information, visit www.bencrump.com.
ABOUT DICELLO LEVITT
At DiCello Levitt, we’re dedicated to achieving justice for our clients through class action, business-to-business, public client, whistleblower, personal injury, civil and human rights, and mass tort litigation. Our lawyers are highly respected for their ability to litigate and win cases—whether by trial, settlement, or otherwise—for people who have suffered harm, global corporations that have sustained significant economic losses, and public clients seeking to protect their citizens’ rights and interests. Every day, we put our reputations—and our capital—on the line for our clients. DiCello Levitt has achieved top recognition as Plaintiffs Firm of the Year and Trial Innovation Firm of the Year by the National Law Journal, in addition to its top-tier Chambers and Benchmark ratings. For more information about the firm, including recent trial victories and case resolutions, please visit www.dicellolevitt.com.
