The idea that companies or law firms would turn to legal outsourcing providers for help during busy season seems foreign to many. But Abhi Shah, chief executive officer of legal services provider the Clutch Group, says the subprime crisis is shining a new light on the outsourcing of legal services.

U.S. Treasury Under Secretary for Domestic Finance Robert Steel believes access to financial literacy tools may have helped many Americans avoid foreclosure, according to testimony he gave in front of the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy Subcommittee on the Underserved.

First American National Claims Outsourcing, a division of The First American Corp., said Wednesday that it aims to achieve peak levels when it comes to internal training and business processes by entering into an alliance with consultant Lyons McCloskey.

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey—a measure of loan origination activity—shows a drop in mortgage application volume for the week ending May 23, 2008.

Bensalem, Pennsylvania-based ISGN, a company that offers the mortgage banking industry an assortment of technology solutions, said Wednesday that UK-based GMAC-RFC Property Finance Limited has agreed to utilize the company’s Construction Lender (TCL) software system to streamline the creation and management of loans and reduce risk.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) resolved an ongoing Department of Justice (DOJ) civil lawsuit on Tuesday by agreeing to a settlement that will ensure brokers operating on the internet have the same access when it comes to multiple listing services (MLSs).

The Ohio Attorney General’s Office has released a statement, saying it plans to add claims to a securities class action lawsuit it previously filed against insurer American International Group, Inc.

Parsippany, New Jersey-based Red Vision Systems, Inc., a company that provides property research and technology solutions, recently announced the availability of an electronic plant that will provide the entire state of Maryland with easy to access title search options and courthouse records.

Home prices in Massachusetts continued their free fall in April, dropping 12-percent from the previous year, according to a new report from publisher and data provider The Warren Group. The latest report from the publisher indicates that the median price of a Massachusetts home hit $346,750 in April of last year, compared to $305,000 this year.

The latest S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Indices report, which was released by Standard & Poor’s (S&P) on Tuesday to measure value changes on residential properties, shows home prices dropping 14.