Florida Mortgage Modification Lawyer Blog

Recently, the Florida Attorney General began investigating several law firms handling large numbers foreclosure cases which have been described as “foreclosure mills” for filing fraudulent documents with the court.

Unfortunately, investigation hit a bit of a snag on October 4, 2010; hopefully it will just be temporary. In a hearing on a motion to quash a subpoena against one of the firms, the judge ruled the Florida Attorney General’s subpoena was overbroad and unduly burdensome.

Normally, that issue can be resolved by fine-tuning the subpoena more narrowly and then building upon what you discover later. However, the judge went further and called into question the Florida Attorney General’s constitutional authority to even investigate law firms as they are regulated by the Florida Supreme Court and the Florida Bar.

Continue reading " Investigation Into Foreclosure Mills Hits A Snag " »

It appears courts are getting tougher on foreclosure mills in Sarasota and Manatee County, Florida. Recently, according to the Miami Herald, a Manatee County Circuit Court Judge sanctioned the law firm of Smith Hiatt & Diaz $49,000 for “deliberate, willful, and flagrant” contempt for setting, then missing two foreclosure hearings. Apparently this was not a one-time event but similar incidents of not showing or cancelling hearings at the last minute had occurred in the past.

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To counteract the sloppy and at times false allegations plead in foreclosure complaints across the state, on February 11, 2010, the Supreme Court of Florida amended rule 1.030(b) of Florida’s rules of civil procedure to state:

When filing an action for foreclosure of a mortgage on residential real property the complaint shall be verified. When verification of a document is required, the document filed shall include an oath, affirmation, or the following statement: “Under penalty of perjury, I declare that I have read the foregoing, and the facts alleged therein are true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.”

Continue reading " Issues Arising From the Verification of Foreclosure Complaints " »

For all intents and purposes, MERS is Dead. Recently, I heard that MERS was making changes to its business model. To that statement, I must respond: "What business model?" The only thing that MERS did in my opinion is put the screws to the entire mortgage industry. In six months to a year, MERS will be gone, and then we will begin to see the bigger picture. The questions that we will be asking are: Do I really have to pay my mortgage? Who do I owe the money to? How many credit reports need to be cleaned up because they are wrong? It's going to get ugly.

In a year, I will look back on past blogs to see if my predictions were right or wrong. This story is going to get interesting.

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The King of Foreclosures, that is. Since you all probably read my last blog about the trouble in Southwest Florida foreclosure courts caused by the demise of David Stern’s office, it won’t surprise you to hear that the craziness may have only just begun.

After removing Stern’s office from thousands of cases, mortgage giant Fannie Mae (another interesting topic to be discussed soon) had to retain other Florida law firms. It seems several of these firms may be keeping the Florida Attorney General’s office busy.

Continue reading " Is The King Alive In Southwest Florida ? " »

How many have seen the recent articles about David Stern? The rise and fall of a foreclosure king, they say. For those of you not familiar with Mr. Stern and his status as the king of the foreclosure mills, his empire included giant clients like Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, GMAC, Citibank and Wells Fargo. During the housing crash of 2008, Stern’s foreclosure caseload grew to over 70,000 in 2009.

Continue reading " The King’s Effect on Lee County Foreclosure Trials: Return of the Rocket Docket " »

While foreclosure cases continue to flood the court dockets, the courts are not alone in being stretched to their limits. The banks and mortgage companies have also struggled to keep pace.

The rush to keep up is particularly evident in the shoddy paperwork the bank's often present to the court. Whether it is outright fraud or simply sloppy documentation, documents that post-date the lawsuit, or show that another entity owns the note will often lead to the court dismissing the complaint.

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The answer to the Question: Have Foreclosures Stopped in Florida? is No, they have not. But, it is easy to see why people are thinking that foreclosures have stopped. While reading the newspaper last week, I came across an interesting article addressing a topic that has, over the last few weeks, caused a bit of confusion amongst the residents of Southwest Florida I meet with on a daily basis.

The article was titled “BofA Restarts 16,000 Foreclosures.” I say that it has caused confusion because, while there have been numerous articles speaking to the banks’ claims that they have “stopped” foreclosures due to improper document filing, “robosigners,” and other potential improprieties during the court foreclosure process, foreclosures have been continuing and the process has not halted.

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