Jonathan Kolodziej Quoted in RISMedia on Current Wave of RESPA Litigation

Bradley partner Jonathan Kolodziej was quoted in RISMedia discussing the current wave of RESPA litigation as a symptom of a deeper issue: the mortgage industry operating under a 50-year-old law that was never designed for today’s digital, vertically integrated housing market.

“The law has been stagnant for a long time,” said Kolodziej. “We’re 50-plus years in now, and no real change (to RESPA). We’re pushing a square peg through a round hole, applying historical legal frameworks to modern ways of doing business.”

Kolodziej points to the pullback of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) under the Trump administration as a significant accelerant to the current spate of referral kickback litigation.

With the CFPB narrowing its focus mostly to mortgage fraud and tangible consumer harms, state attorneys general have moved to fill the gap, feeling “it’s their responsibility to pick up some of that slack,” he noted. Meanwhile, plaintiffs’ firms are seeing an opportunity to jump into the fray. describing the industry’s struggle to apply outdated legal standards to modern practices such as algorithmic lead routing, co-branded marketing and platform-driven referrals.

Kolodziej also emphasized that regulatory uncertainty, not just enforcement risk, is driving anxiety across the mortgage sector. In his view, the real danger is an environment where compliance standards are vague, enforcement is fragmented, and innovation continues to outpace regulation.

For smaller operators, the range of outcomes in these high-profile cases has significant ramifications, even if they’re never on the court docket. Kolodziej tracks enforcement matters and class actions closely, watching for final verdicts, consent orders or appellate decisions that could change how Section 8 is applied. Settlements, he cautioned, bring a lot of noise.

“People settle cases all the time for all sorts of different reasons. A lot of times, they don’t even believe they did anything wrong,” Kolodziej explained.

Kolodziej said his clients aren’t asking for a free pass; they just want to know what the rules of the road are so they can follow them. “When it’s not clear is when everybody suffers.”

The full article, “How High-Profile RESPA Litigation Could Reshape Mortgage, Real Estate Referrals,” was published by RISMedia on May 11, 2026. (login required)