The King’s Effect on Lee County Foreclosure Trials: Return of the Rocket Docket
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.
Getting paid not just for the volume of cases, but also the quickness with which a home was foreclosed on, Stern’s office was unable to keep up with the work without taking shortcuts. To deal with the increasing need to work quickly, Stern turned to what is now the most popular coined industry phrase in recent history, “robo-signers.” Thus began the demise of this King of Foreclosures.
One Stern employee was said to have signed over 1,000 foreclosure affidavits in a day and never read one word. When she got tired of signing, she had three of her employees help by forging her signature. Taking it even one step further, this highly-compensated, high-ranking employee would sign documents with a notary stamp that did not exist at the time of signing. Because of such “questionable” activity at Stern’s office, including creating fraudulent legal documents and filing foreclosure lawsuits without actually proving the bank had any legal interest in the loan, the foreclosure industry is being watched with a more careful eye…or so the media would like us to believe.
This blog was written by Danielle Zemola, Esq. of The Dellutri Law Group, P.A. Ms. Zemola defends homeowners in the foreclosure process and in the Bankruptcy Court.
