Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyers Blog

In today's mortgage industry, the long-standing simple concept of the transfer of mortgages still exists. However, times have changed and the concept of transferring mortgages has become extremely complex.

Originally, when a Note and Mortgage were transferred to a new owner, the new owner would take possession of the original Note and Mortgage, and the original Note would be endorsed specifically to the new owner, much like a check. This process is reflected in Florida Statute § 673.2031(1) (2010) which states: "[a]n instrument is transferred when it is delivered by a person other than its issuer for the purpose of giving to the person receiving delivery the right to enforce the instrument." The Supreme Court of Florida held that a mortgage can be transferred without a written assignment simply by delivering the note with intent to assign it. Hence the well-known expression, the Mortgage follows the Note.

With the extreme demand of finance today, the simple concept of just endorsing and physically delivering the note and mortgage from one lender to another no longer exists. Today, the path most likely seen is:
➢ The Mortgage originator (Lender) originates hundreds of loans; THEN
➢ The Mortgage originator uses the borrowed money in order to create more mortgages; THEN
➢ When the Mortgage originator has a sizeable number of mortgages, the originator partners with one of the major investment banks to pool the mortgages and create securities of out them. This process is called "securitization."

Securitization occurs when the Mortgage originator assigns a pool of mortgages to a newly formed trust. The trust in turn issues securities for the mortgages, which are sold to investors. The trust becomes the owner of all the mortgages in the pool and the investors receive payments on the securities based upon collection of mortgage payments from the pool. Packaging mortgages as securities makes trading mortgages much easier, rather than trading each mortgage separately.

This brings me back to the transfer of individual mortgages. As described, mortgages and notes are assigned by the hundreds and even thousands; making it extremely alluring to skip entirely the preparation and recording of a proper chain of title for each mortgage in a pool. Since mortgages are transferred multiple times within the life of a loan, each transfer is generally only temporary. To streamline the process, transfer generally only takes the form of a pledge of the mortgages in bulk together with delivery of the original Note to the bank. The mortgages may be transferred in bulk, unrecorded, many times without ever physically moving the notes.

If you are facing foreclosure and believe your Note and Mortgage were securitized, contact a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer today.

A potentially key witness in a Nevada case against two title officers who have been accused of "robo-signing" thousands of documents was found dead in her home earlier in the month. Authorities were altered when the witness missed her scheduled court date on a related misdemeanor charge and the subsequent hearing where she was to testify against the two title officers.

Law Vegas police have stated that they do not suspect foul play and are not treating the death as a homicide. A preliminary investigation has yielded evidence that she took her own life. The witness was facing up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine for her role in the robo-signing scheme where she estimated she had notarized more than 30,000 documents of people not in her presence during the course of her employment with Lender Processing Services Inc. between 2005 and 2008. In November, the witness plead guilty to a single count of notarizing the signature of a person not in her presence.

The developments in Nevada are unfortunate for several reasons, most obviously the loss of life. Hopefully the case against the two title officers and the role Lender Processing Services, Inc. played in subject robo-signing scandal can go forward without this key witness. if you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit and believe you have been a victim of robo-signing, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today.

Now that the Law Offices of David J. Stern and Ben-Ezra & Katz are no longer Florida's foreclosure kings, law firms from other states are opening offices in Florida to seize some of Florida's foreclosure business that is now up for grabs. New foreclosure filings slowed significantly last year while foreclosure processing procedures were reconstructed by Fannie Mae and Feddie Mac.

The largest of the new firms, McCalla Raymer, based in Atlanta, GA, has opened four offices in Florida housing 21 attorneys in the last year. Other out-of-state firms include Brock & Scott from North Carolina, Ablitt Scofield from Massachusetts, Mark J. Udren & Associates from New Jersey,; and from Atlanta Aldridge Connors, Pendergast & Associates, and Phelan Hallinan & Schmieg. Most have chosen Fort Lauderdale as their base in South Florida.

Now that Fannie and Freddie have taken necessary steps to ensure all of its foreclosure paperwork is in order, they are now ready to begin filing foreclosures again. In addition to restricting their foreclosure processes, the mortgage giants have also changed the matter in which their hire law firms in Florida to file their foreclosures. This time around, in an attempt to not create another David Stern or Ben -Ezra, they plan to spread out the work among many firms and are even sitting in on attorney interviews. They are taking a more active role to make sure these firms follow proper procedures. Now included in Fannie Mae's contracts with loan servicers, the servicers will be responsible for monitoring and managing the conduct of foreclosure proceedings.

Facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, can be a very stressful and confusing period. Contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today. A Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer may be able to help you navigate through this difficult time and put you in the best financial position possible for your future. The initial consultation is free.

Lender Processing Services, the mortgage servicing industry support company based in Jacksonville, was one of the many loan servicers engaged in the robo-signing scandal that has rocked the mortgage world over the past few years. Essentially, robo-signing is largely what it sounds like. As loan servicers faced mounting piles of unpaid mortgages, they decided they didn't have the time to actually review the documents or properly sign them. Instead, many employees were signing each other's names or using other forms of fraud to make the documents look legitimate. Then, the documents were filed in court and used to foreclose on peoples' homes.

But fraudulently signing documents and filing them in court is illegal. Unfortunately, the problem was so wide-spread that, in many areas, the solution was to simply accept the word of the lenders that they would stop filing fraudulent documents. However Nevada, one of the states hardest hit by the national mortgage crisis, has taken a tougher stance regarding robo-signing. Recently, prosecutors in Nevada filed a 606-count indictment against two LPS employees for fraudulently signing documents and directing other LPS employees to file tens of thousands of false documents.

That was not a typo: these two employees in one state are allegedly responsible, at least in part, for tens of thousands of false documents. This is the first time in the country that criminal charges are being filed for the robo-signing scandal. LPS says, though there have been some problems, all of the documents it filed were properly authorized. In other words, they're admitting that some of the documents were flawed, but they maintain that none of the foreclosures were wrongful. As LPS is the nation's larger provider of mortgage processing services, it will be extremely interesting to see how this case plays out. While LPS is based on Jacksonville, it has offices nationwide to support to lenders based in different regions of the U.S.

Keep reading a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyers Blog for further updates. If you are currently or will be facing foreclosure, make sure to contact a Florida Foreclosure Defense Attorney to determine what foreclosure defenses may be available in your case.

Most people do not realize that when they borrow money to buy a home, they are in actuality signing the biggest check of their life! The promissory note you sign for your home loan is just like a check. A note and a check are both promises, signed by you, to pay a particular named party a specific amount of money. The only person who can cash a check is the person who has signed the back of it, also known as an endorsement.

The promissory note you signed for your home loan goes through the same exact process as if you endorsed your check in blank, it can be passed from person to person. However, foreclosure plaintiffs are trying to cash promissory notes (foreclose on property) with blank endorsements on them. The loan originator endorses the note in blank, thereby allowing it to be transferred among parties without any real evidence of the transfer. This is just one of the many foreclosure defenses that can arise from the transfer of a note or mortgage.

If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer, contact a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today to determine there are any defenses which arise from the transfer and endorsement of your promissory note. The first consultation is free.

In 2006, Fannie Mae hired an outside law firm to investigate allegations of misconduct by the firms it hired to file its foreclosure actions. The outside investigation revealed its foreclosure attorneys in Florida were sacrificing accuracy for speed by filing fraudulent court documents. Fannie Mae was put on notice in 2006 that its foreclosure attorneys working on their behalf were involved in "unlawful" practices, but sat by and did nothing.

Many Florida foreclosure defense attorneys are in agreement that further abuses by attorneys in the so-called foreclosure mills could have been detected and possibly prevented if Fannie Mae would have strengthened its oversight over its retained firms. Last fall's revelations of "robo-signed" documents and the chaos that followed could have been prevented.

The key players were the Plantation-based David J. Stern firm and Ben-Ezra & Katz in Fort Lauderdale. The Law Offices of David J. Stern was Fannie Mae's largest hired firm for Florida foreclosure cases. David J. Stern was fired by Fannie Mae in November 2010, after ex-employees divulged information state investigators that signatures on notarized documents were habitually forged, notary stamps were passed around to non-notaries, assignments of mortgages were created after foreclosure judgments were entered, and flawed files were hidden from federal auditors. David J. Stern, soon-there-after in March, laid off hundreds of employees and shut down its foreclosure practice. Around 100,000 foreclosure cases were left in a state of uncertainty as they waited to be reassigned to different law firms.

In February 2010, Fannie Mae fired Ben-Ezra & Katz. Ben-Ezra & Katz admitted they had found "technical paperwork issues" with is foreclosure files but maintained, "there is no issue of whether the information in the affected files is correct."

If Fannie Mae had practiced better oversight over their foreclosure cases in Florida and across the U.S., the broad reaching negative consequences we are experiencing today potentially could have been prevented. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today to explore what foreclosure options may be available to you.

40% of foreclosure cases backlogged in the Florida Court System has been cut over the last year. A combination of increased efforts by the courts and cases being dropped or dismissed by banks are responsible for much of the relief. The Office of the State Courts Administrator shows that 201,524 foreclosures were disposed of last year (96,630 disposed of by summary and final judgments, 104,126 were dismissed). However, if a foreclosure case was disposed of through a dismissal, it can most likely be refilled. The question is will they be re-filed and when?

Foreclosure cases can be voluntarily dismissed by banks for a number of reasons but most are dismissed due to paperwork irregularities. Numerous news stories have emerged revealing that bank employees signed foreclosure paperwork without first personally verifying information contained in the documents (commonly referred to as "robosigning"). Other paperwork irregularities have included issues regarding proper notarization, erroneous or forged assignments, and missing or erroneously prepared mortgage documents.

The majority of foreclosure actions that were voluntarily dismissed by banks throughout the last year for one or more paperwork issue, will most likely be filed again. But, foreclosure filings have remained at a decreased rate as banks have increasingly been using other means rather than foreclosure to deal with struggling homeowner, including permitting more homeowners to short sale their property, approving more loan modifications, and allowing homeowners to stay in properties until after the final foreclosure sale.

At the end of the 2010-2011 fiscal court year, 260,815 of foreclosure cases that were pending at the beginning of the year (460,000) remained. 117,000 new cases were filed within the year (which is lower than what was expected). As of June 30, 2011, the number of foreclosure cases pending in the court system is 378,000.

If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit or have had your Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit voluntarily dismissed by your bank, contact a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer today to review your case in order to determine what foreclosure defense options may be available to you.

Robo-signed documents used in foreclosure actions may leave lasting impacts in property records for decades. Buyers of foreclosed properties may face difficulties proving they hold clear title to the properties if their ownership is ever challenged. One of the biggest concerns stems from whether or not homeowners were given proper notice of foreclosure actions and/or of the foreclosure sales. If the notice requirements are not strictly complied with, the Court may not have jurisdiction over the case and the action could be ended.

Another concern is the long-lasting impact on the legal system. The production of fraudulent documents, meant to look genuine and fool the legal system, may be depriving people of some of their legal rights. If that is not enough, people are swearing they are vice presidents of companies they do not work for and signing affidavits stating they have personal knowledge over the subject matter when they do not. Citizens' confidence in the legal system has been and is currently being damaged. Foreclosing banks are being allowed to get by with sloppy paperwork and questionable signatures, but homeowners would never be able to do the same. Missed mortgage payments, do not give banks the right to enter a court of law and take someone's home with the use of false documents.

It is difficult to navigate a foreclosure alone. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today for a complimentary consultation to discuss your foreclosure goals and potential foreclosure defenses.

It appears as if Oregon is on the very of joining Florida as a judicial foreclosure state. This means when a bank wants to foreclose on property, the bank must prevail in court to be able to do so. Oregon is one of twenty-four non-judicial foreclosure states in the nation and been a non-judicial foreclosure state for years. Non-judicial foreclosure systems allow banks to foreclose without having to go through the court system. Banks are permitted to foreclose outside the courts if they give proper notice to borrowers, publicize the sale and follow other requirements that are generally state specific.

In the last year, judges in Oregon have uncovered many banks which have been foreclosing without the right to foreclose, leading Oregon judges to get more involved in Oregon's foreclosure process. Oregon judges are now so involved, that banks now want Oregon to become a Judicial Foreclosure State.

Federal judges got involved and prevented many foreclosures when it was found banks had not met one of Oregon's foreclosure requirements: filing the mortgage loan's ownership history in the proper county's public records. There are currently around 26,000 foreclosures still under review in Oregon. At this point, it is unknown how many of these foreclosures will end up having to go before a judge, but it could be thousands.

If Oregon does decide to become a judicial foreclosure state, the foreclosure time period may become longer and expenses may increase. Of the twenty-six judicial foreclosure states in the nation, a mortgage loan will stand for a projected 728 days before a foreclosure sale date. Mortgage loans only sit for approximately 550 days in non-judicial foreclosure states.

If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today.

"Robo-signing" refers to the practice many banks and their employees have been accused of utilizing which includes employees essential sitting in a room signing thousands of documents without reading them. Rob-signing has been a wide spread practice throughout the nation in foreclosure cases. Many foreclosures have been rife with "robo-signed" documents and some industry official believe homeowners have been wrongfully foreclosed upon as a result.

However, banks and mortgage lenders are now beginning to be held responsible for robo-signing practices, both past and present. Goldman Sachs, Litton Loan Servicing LP, and Ocwen Financial Corporation, after extensive negotiations, have agreed to withdraw active foreclosure cases if they contain robosigned affidavits or inaccurate affidavits. Hopefully, robo-signing will soon come to an end as these firms have further agreed to reinforce supervision of foreclosure counselors and fire all foreclosure attorneys who have been found to have questionable document practices or who face sanctioning by their state's bar.

If a home has already been wrongfully foreclosed upon, the settlement requires each company to return the property involved to the homeowner, or provide adequate compensation for the loss.

If you believe your home being wrongfully foreclosed upon due to robo-signed documents, contact Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer today to review your case and see what defenses may be available to you. The first consultation is free!

Jeff Barnes, a California attorney who also has an office in Boca Raton, has filed a unique Florida lawsuit against JP Morgan Chase. The filing cites Florida RICO statutes in an effort to pin Chase with a widespread pattern of misconduct. Barnes is making a claim of "nationalized fraud" by Chase because they used false and fraudulent documents to foreclose on homes, and also claimed it had the right to foreclose on Washington Mutual loans, which Chase took over in 2008.

Barnes is using the Florida Civil Remedies for Criminal Practices Act, which is the civil version of the Florida Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act. The suit has drawn much attention and Mr. Barnes is considering adding more plaintiffs, although he does not plan to solicit for any more. However, some Florida lawyer's are skeptical as to whether this statute will actually work in fighting against the banks.

Perhaps the best thing that could come from this filing is that the suit requests Chase be barred from processing foreclosures until the case ends, which could buy time for many homeowners facing Chase foreclosures. If you are currently facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit or are simply having difficulty paying a mortgage, contact < Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today to explore your potential legal options.

Add "foreclosure help line" to the extensive list of catchy 800 numbers being advertised today. Although the phone number has not been established yet, 1-800-4CFRAUD seems like an apt set of digits. That's because the hotline is supposed target homeowners who fear they were harmed by problems in processing foreclosures over the last couple of years.

The telephone number is being established in response to an outcry from residential mortgage regulators to banks to fix the problems in their foreclosure procedures. This comes after finding that nearly 14 lenders filed foreclosures improperly or without the correct amount of man power to handle all of the filings. In response, regulators have expressed a desire to establish a single way to review cases rather than each mortgage company using their own procedure. Hopefully this will provide the necessary consistency and transparency homeowners did not receive when dealing directly with many mortgage lenders.

Contacting a help line is another link that could help stave off foreclosure for many struggling homeowners. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer today for a free initial consultation in order to determine what options may be available to you.

In the age of 'robo-signing' and other witty phraseology, a new term has arisen and it may be central to a recent lawsuit filed against Lender Processing Services (LPS) by American Home Mortgage Servicing, Inc. (AHMSI). AHMSI alleges they've faced millions of dollars in losses that were incurred when DocX, an LPS affiliate, acted improperly in processing and recording nearly 30,000 mortgages. Central to the case is DocX's alleged use of "surrogate signers."

AHMSI hired DocX to process and record lien releases, mortgage assignments and other documents for AHMSI from 2008 until late 2009. It was at that time LPS informed AHMSI that the "surrogate signers" signed thousands of documents instead of the actual officers AHMSI originally scheduled to do the work. AHMSI immediately fired DocX upon learning of the problem.

Since the debacle, AHMSI has undertaken a large-scale remedial effort focused on correcting the assignments in question. These efforts include many legal issues and problems that span the Country, and of course substantial expense for AHMSI. LPS does not deny the surrogate signed documentation but instead insists they should not be penalized as they curbed the practice upon its discovery and offered AHMSI reimbursement for costs. AHMSI says such discussions have been unsuccessful, however.

The above situation outlines the importance of hiring well and what can happen when one does not. So remember, if you are facing the realities of foreclosure, contacting a or Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer can be in important first step in defending your home.

After a Reuters report and county officials in more than three states on Monday reported thousands of documents showed evidence that banks have continued the illegal practice of robo-signing, lawmakers and law enforcement agencies are demanding investigations of mortgage lenders. Senator Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, chair of the Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection Subcommittee, plans to hold a hearing regarding the issue.

The Essex County Massachusetts property deed office reported 1,300 document filings since October with the signature of Linda Green appearing in 22 different handwriting styles and multiple titles. The Massachusetts Attorney General's office is now scheduling meetings with many of the state's deed registers' to investigate. In Guilford County, North Carolina, the county recording office reported nearly 500 documents with suspected robo-signatures. More examples are surfacing as reports of the robo-signed documents spread.

Brown's supporters are mostly of a similar mindset: if regulations are too relaxed, the housing market will face the same issues that left it crippled in the past. After the robo-signing issue arose last fall, Lenders were left to police themselves after they promised to cease the practice. But the continuing robo-signing issue is a testament that self-regulation cannot solve this problem.

This news is another potentially significant blow to mortgage lenders. Let's hope that this time, something material comes from these news allegations. Often times, finding the discrepancies in loan documentation takes extensive discovery. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit and want to explore your potential foreclosure defense options, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today.

A quarterly study recently released shows Florida toward the top of the list for risks of mortgage fraud. Florida was topped only by Nevada (at number one) and Arizona (number two). Northeast Florida, including Jacksonville, was rated a "high" risk while Southern Florida, including Miami and Orlando, was ranked a "very high" risk. North Western Florida, on the other hand, was given a "low" risk rating.

In making its conclusions, the report looks primarily at four types of mortgage scams: property valuation fraud, identity fraud, occupancy fraud, and phony income reports.

Property valuation fraud typically involves manipulating property values to create a profit margin. It's similar to "flipping", which was very popular before the market crash, in that the buyer purchases a home intending to sell it at a higher value. Unlike flipping, however, the buyer doesn't add any actual value to the home -- instead, the buyer uses shady numbers and other tactics to artificially raise the price of the home and then sells it to an unsuspecting buyer.

Identity fraud is a relatively well-known problem. In the mortgage market, identity fraud generally means a buyer pretends to be someone else. This enables him or her to obtain a better credit rating and attain a loan that he or she otherwise might not have received.

Occupancy fraud involves buyers who falsely claim they will live in the house full time. A full-time residency generally means lower down payments and lower interest rates. Similarly, phony income reports involve buyers who falsify income documents to appear to have more assets than they really do.

All of these types of fraud have a negative impact on the mortgage industry and only increase paperwork for already backed-up banks and courts. Hopefully the fraud and unscrupulous behavior surrounding Florida's foreclosures market subsides in the coming months and years.