How to Pursue Bank of America Lawsuits
Bank of America is a financial services company that was founded in San Francisco and is now based in North Carolina. In 1998, NationsBank acquired Bank America, and the entity came to be what we now know as the Bank of America. It is one of the largest banking and financial services corporations in the United States and is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, The Vanguard Group, and BlackRock.
In this article, we will expose one of America's most sued financial firms and some of Bank of America’s lawsuits that have made the news. We will also walk you through an easy process of suing Bank of America in Small Claims Court using .
Bank of America Lawsuits: Overview
To date, it has 219 records of violations and offenses with total damages of $82,764,013,078. Most of its offenses are related to mortgage abuses, toxic securities offenses, investor protection violations, banking violations, and consumer protection violations. From 2000 to 2020, Bank of America has been a defendant in several infamous lawsuits that you may or may not have heard of. Here are some of them:
| Type of Violation | Agency | Damages |
| Accounting fraud or deficiencies | Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) | $80,000,000 |
| Americans with Disabilities Act violations | Justice Department Civil Rights Division | $300,000 |
| Anti-money-laundering deficiencies | Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) | $13,000,000 |
| New York District Attorney’s office | $7,500,000 | |
| New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) | $5,000,000 | |
| Banking violations | Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) | $79,524 - $2,886,578,478 |
| Federal Reserve (FED) | $5,000,000 - $205,000,000 | |
| Justice Department Civil Rights Division (DOJ RIGHTS) | $370,000,000 | |
| Benefit plan administrator violations | Private lawsuits in federal court | $10,000,000 - $83,401,000 |
| Consumer protection violations | Washington Department of Financial Institutions (FIN) | $650,000 |
| Data submission deficiencies | Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) | $500,000 |
| Discriminatory practices (non-employment) | Private lawsuit in federal court | $3,670,000 |
| Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD) | $7,500 - $161,180 | |
| Massachusetts Attorney General’s office (AG) | $50,000 | |
| Economic sanction violations | Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) | $13,573 - $16,562,700 |
| Employment discriminations | Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) | $1,000,000 - $4,200,000 |
| Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) | $30,000 - $1,550,000 | |
| Private lawsuit in federal court | $7,200,000 - $160,000,000 | |
| Environmental violations | Various state’s Department of Environmental Management (ENV) | $12,480 - $27,625 |
| Export control violations | Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) | $44,625 |
| False Claims Act and related violations | Alaska AG | $35,600,000 |
| Family and Medical Leave Act violations | Labor Department Wage and Hour Division (WHD) | $6,500 - $14,528 |
| Fraud | SEC | $26,000,000 |
| District of Columbia AG | $13,000,000 - $13,502,852 | |
| Insurance violation | South Carolina Department of Insurance (INS) | $5,000 |
| Interest rate benchmark manipulations | CFTC | $30,000,000 |
| Investor protection violations | SEC | $150,000 - $415,000,000 |
| CFTC | $300,000 - $24,900,000 | |
| Various state’s AG | $459,000 - $4,550,000,000 | |
| U.S. Attorney-Western District of North Carolina (USAO) | $2,500,000 | |
| Various state’s SEC | $10,000 - $25,930,000 | |
| District of Columbia Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking (DISB) | $15,000 | |
| Florida Office of Financial Regulation (OFR) | $10,000 | |
| New Hampshire Bureau of Securities Regulation (BSR) | $500,000 - $26,250,000 | |
| Various state’s FIN | $7,000 - $125,000,000 | |
| Labor relations violations | National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) | $18,634 |
| Mortgage abuses | Justice Department (DOJ) | $10,956,600,000 - $16,650,000,000 |
| Justice Department Civil Division (DOJ CIVIL) | $20,000,000 | |
| DOJ RIGHTS | $335,000,000 | |
| Various state’s AG | $161,805 - $8,680,000,000 | |
| Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA) | $84,548,000 | |
| Price-fixing or anti-competitive practices | Justice Department Antitrust Division (DOJ ANTITRUST) | $137,300,000 |
| SEC | $36,096,442 | |
| Various state’s AG | $67,000,000 | |
| Justice Department Criminal Division (DOJ CRIMINAL) | $25,000,000 | |
| Privacy violations | Various state’s AG | $100,000 - $350,000 |
| New Hampshire BSR | $400,000 | |
| Private lawsuit in federal court | $6,500,000 - $32,083,905 | |
| Toxic securities abuses | SEC | $131,800,000 |
| Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) | $404,000,000 - $10,350,000,000 | |
| National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) | $165,000,000 | |
| Various state’s AG | $300,000 - $19,500,000 | |
| Wage and hour violations | WHD | $5,827 - $516,924 |
| Private lawsuit in federal court | $661,392 - $73,000,000 | |
| Private lawsuit in state court | $2,500,000 - $30,000,000 | |
| Workplace safety or health violations | Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) | $5,000 - $6,600 |
Suing Bank of America for Excessive Fees
In March 2019, plaintiffs filed a class-action lawsuit against Bank of America. The lawsuit was in regards to claims that the bank was improperly charging overdraft and other fees to customers whose accounts were already empty. Some of the specifics of the lawsuit were as follows:
- Bank of America was allegedly extracting overdraft fees from customers with savings and checking accounts.
- Bank of America usually charged $35 fees for insufficient funds or overdrafts on a single transaction.
- However, some customers were charged multiple times after rejecting their credit card payments.
- The retry processing resulted in charging a $35 fee multiple times with some plaintiffs being charged a total of $105.
- One part of the settlement requires Bank of America to stop imposing multiple fees on retry payments to its customer for at least five years.
- Bank of America has agreed to pay 75 million dollars to settle.
Suing Bank of America for Data Breach
In January 2021, a class-action lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Francisco against Bank of America. The lawsuit claims that Bank of America violated the Consumer Privacy Act and Unfair Competition Law and was negligent towards Employment Development Department (EED) debit cardholders. Some of the specifics of the lawsuit include:
- Through an exclusive contract with California’s EDD, Bank of America had an obligation to provide EDD benefits via the bank’s debit cards.
- Provisions of the contract included secure accounts for unemployed payments.
- Bank of America failed to protect unemployed payments from cybersecurity risks.
- As a result, unemployed Californians lost their EDD income due to fraudulent transactions and hacked accounts.
How to Sue Bank of America With DoNotPay
Suing in small claims court means you do not have to spend more on lawyer fees and large companies like Bank of America cannot send their bigwig lawyers to deal with you. However, you may still need to overcome bureaucracies and complete a multitude of forms and demand letters. That is where DoNotPay can help! All you need to do is:
- Log in to and select the Sue Now Product
- Enter the dollar amount you are owed
- Select whether you want a demand letter or court filing forms
- Describe the reason for the lawsuit and submit any applicable evidence
That’s it! will then generate a demand letter or court filing forms for you. We’ll even mail a copy of your demand letter to the individual or business you are suing!
What Other Companies Can DoNotPay Help You Sue?
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