Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyers Blog

Plaintiff's seem to have sunk to a new low when trying to avoid responsibility for the contents of their mortgage foreclosure complaint...some plaintiff's believe that "verifying" complaint causes them to purger themselves! Now this particular issue is now before Florida Second District Court of Appeals.

The controversy arises from an order from a Pinellas County Florida court which dismissed Plaintiff's, U.S. Bank as trustee for a securitized mortgage trust, foreclosure complaint and order Plaintiff to file an amended complaint and instructed U.S. Bank to verify the complaint itself. Instead of merely reviewing the statements contained in the documents and verifying its complaint pursuant to Florida law, on December 12, U.S. Bank filed an appeal of the lower court's ruling asking to be exempted from the verification rule.

In its petition for writ of certiorari U.S. Bank states "in order for U.S. Bank to comply with the trial court order, it would be forced to commit perjury or altogether forego its right to pursue" its foreclosure case. We will have to see if the courts believe the argument that even though a foreclosure complaint can be brought in the name of an interested party, another party is the party with the actual knowledge of the issues and should verify a complaint.

If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today for a complimentary case review in order to determine what foreclosure defense options may be available to you.

After the Florida Bar News published an article about robo-signing in the mortgage industry in the September 15th edition, State Attorney Dennis Ward of the 16th Judicial Circuit in Florida has decided to take a closer look. For those of you not yet familiar with the term robo-signing, it is a practice where banks and their counsel create documents relating to foreclosures that are often questionable in nature and have low level employees sign them without verifying their contents or correctness. Since robo-signing has caught the attention of the media in late 2010, there has been a temporary decrease in foreclosure filings throughout the state of Florida.

Mr. Ward stated his ultimate concern is protecting the integrity of the legal system and land title records. He believes when a home owner is not paying their mortgage, the bank should be able to foreclose on the property as soon as possible; provided that banks do so with valid paper work and with regard to due process.

The continued abuses in foreclosure paperwork, which banks said were ended last year after they were put under great scrutiny, is what has grabbed Mr. Ward's attention. He also recognizes that his agency does not have the resources to address this issue fully and that it is better suited for Attorney General Pam Bondi. Nevertheless, it is time for State Attorneys' to address the issue however they can. Looking into the individuals who actually sign or file these questionable documents who know them to be false of intentionally deceptive is going to be State Attorney Ward's focus.

If you are facing foreclosure, contact a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today for a free case review in order to determine what foreclosure defense options may be available to you.

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.

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.

Many who read this blog or follow financial news are familiar with the promises from top Banks in the US to stop the filing of fraudulent and faulty foreclosure documentation. A recent Reuter's investigation proved that many of the same companies are still utilizing the same lackadaisical practices that stifled America's housing market and plunged thousands of homeowners into foreclosure.

The article mentions 87-year-old resident of Immokalee Florida, a town at the epicenter of the foreclosure crisis in Collier County. OneWest Bank filed foreclosure paperwork in that was peppered with problems, namely in the assignment of mortgage. But this key document was not signed and recorded with Collier County until some months after OneWest filed the foreclosure!

The Reuters investigation also identified at least six robo-signers which appear on thousands of mortgage assignments filed by banks in recent months. Some of the individuals have even appeared at depositions only to claim that they never read or checked the assignments, and one, when asked what an assignment of mortgage is, replied: "I'm really not sure."

It's fairly easy to see that the recent settlements between Banks and investors have done little to stop these questionable practices. The banks seem to be saying that providing proper documentation doesn't matter, because many of these homeowners are in fact delinquent on their mortgages. Although that might be the case, it doesn't give the bank carte blanche authority to just take people's homes while not following the legal requirements to do so.

For now, Courts tend to disagree with this analysis, for whatever reason. Until Banks are held more accountable and made an example of, the fight for homeowners is still an uphill battle. Florida Foreclosure Defense attorney's are working to help turn the tides. 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 determine what potential foreclosure defenses are available to you.

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.

Lisa Myers has a Video Series on Foreclosures and this segment discusses Jacksonville and some of the problems we face daily. We were interviewed for this segment of the series.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

You can view/read the main text article for the special report here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42881365/ns/business-personal_finance/

You can watch the four Lisa Myers reports here:

Foreclosure Crisis: The Mortgage Loan Modification Trap

Foreclosure Crisis: The Whistleblowers

Foreclosure Crisis: Manufactured Loan Documents

Foreclosure Crisis: The Face of Foreclosure: One Family's Story

The fourteen top U.S. mortgage lenders are reportedly near an agreement with federal regulators which would call for an servicers to completely revamp their foreclosure practices and handling of delinquent borrowers. The investigation and impending agreement stems from numerous allegations of foreclosure abuses, most notably rampant "robo-signing" that has plagued the foreclosure process. Insiders have stated that the regulators, which include the Office of the Comptroller of Currency, the Office of Thrift Supervision, and the Federal Reserve, could potentially announce the agreements as early as next week.

This round of agreements will likely come before any agreements made arising from the investigations being carried out by the 50 state attorney's general into the foreclosure practices of mortgage lenders. Any deal agreed to upon by the two sides will likely include new, mandatory minimum default servicing requirements as well as monetary penalties. Head of the Office of Comptroller of Currency John Walsh has stated that the banks emphasized "timeliness and cost efficiency over quality and accuracy" when pursuing foreclosures and they banks did not promote an environment "is consistent with conducting foreclosure process in a safe and sound manner."

Hopefully this settlement will be good news for the millions of struggling borrowers nationwide. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer or a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer today.

President of the Florida Bar, Mayane Downs, says that the Bar has seen an increase large increase in the number of complaints and investigations of attorney misconduct as a result of foreclosure fraud and some may pay the ultimate professional price, disbarment. The Florida Bar, the body responsible for monitoring and investigation attorney conduct, has seen the number of fraud cases and the number of attorney's under investigation rise from 28 investigations on 23 attorneys in 2010 to 222 investigations on 157 attorneys open so far in 2011.

The substance of the investigations are not made public but complaints normally range from forged signatures on court documents, forged notarizations on documents and other illegal and unscrupulous activities designed to speed up the foreclosure process. These investigations do not include the wide-ranging investigations into the 8 Florida "foreclosure mills" including the now defunct Law Offices of David J. Stern. Many foreclosure defense attorneys question why no one from any of the "foreclosure mills" has yet to be suspended or face professional sanctions as a result of the investigations.

Many attorneys didn't believe that the media allegations of foreclosure abuses would result in official investigations by the Florida Bar but that appears to not be the case. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit where one of the 8 "foreclosure mills" is opposing counsel, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today to see what foreclosure defense options may be available to you.

Two of the nations largest banks and mortgage lenders, Wells Fargo and Bank of America, have recently made statements that they are expecting large fines from multiple investigations in their foreclosure practices which are currently being conducted by state and federal authorities. The probes began in the fall of 2010 amidst numerous allegations of "robo-signing", approving and signing thousands of documents related to a foreclosure without actually reading them or verifying their accuracy.

Both banks temporarily halted foreclosure proceedings as they reviewed thousands of foreclosure documents and both banks corrected and re-filed many foreclosure documents as a result of those reviews. While the banks have made efforts to clean up their foreclosure documentation issues, it is not an easy fix and the problems could persist and hang over the lenders for several years. Federal regulators have indicated they could seek as much as $20 billion in fines from the lenders to settle the probe and Bank of America has stated that the probe could lead to "significant legal costs in 2011."

Hopefully these forthcoming fines as a result of the investigations will lead banks, both large and small, to permanently clean up their foreclosure practices and fix the outstanding foreclosure documentation issues. If that happens it can only come as good news for homeowners facing foreclosure. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today to explore what foreclosure defenses may be available to you.

In an unexpected announcement, which coincides with the offering of a free continuing legal education seminar aimed at improving the foreclosure processes in Florida, the Florida Bar is now requiring all attorney's to notify foreclosure judges about potential fraud in their cases, including those cases that are closed and the home sold. With 1.2 million foreclosures being filed in the state of Florida since 2007 and countless accusations of fraud from the five Florida "foreclosure mills" no one can accurately estimate the impact on foreclosure cases in the state. This announcement represents the largest step toward preventing fraud the Florida Bar has ever taken.

Attorneys are now instructed to report the fraud to the court, but are instructed not to do so in a public court hearing. Instead, attorneys are instructed to ask for a private, "in camera", hearing with the judge in order to determine whether any fraud was perpetrated. Many foreclosure defense lawyers have bristled at the idea of more, private hearings and point to the fact that foreclosure hearings are civil matters and are, and should be, open to the public. It remains to be seen what judges will do once they are alerted to fraud, as the consequences range from doing nothing to dismissing the action.

A Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer hopes that this latest step to prevent fraud has a profound effect on foreclosure courts and Florida homeowners facing foreclosure. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today.

With scores of complaints from Florida homeowners, foreclosure defense lawyers and investigations by both the Florida Attorney General's Office and the U.S. Congress, the Florida Bar says they are not getting formal complaints against attorneys who commit foreclosure fraud. While the Florida Bar has suspended or disbarred over 200 attorneys so far this year none have been a result of complaints of foreclosure fraud. But by taking several proactive steps, the Florida Bar thinks this trend will quickly change.

The head of the Florida Bar, Mayanne Downs, is now asking judges statewide to report any and all instances of foreclosure fraud or fraud on the court, including sending copies of orders judges write where they mention some form of misconduct. While judges will now be on the lookout for foreclosure fraud it is up to Florida homeowners and their attorneys to challenge the fraudulent behavior in front of the court so judges are aware that the fraud is happening. To deal with the anticipated increase in foreclosure fraud complaints the Bar has instituted a new category solely dedicated to tracking foreclosure fraud complaints. In the month of November, the Bar is already investigating 43 reports of foreclosure fraud.

If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit and you feel that a foreclosure fraud has been perpetrated against you, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today for a complimentary case review.

On the heels of allegations of "robo-signing", an investigation by the Florida Attorney General's Office, sworn statements from former employees about the unscrupulous internal system designed to speed up foreclosures and an announcement by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that they were no longer referring cases to them, the Law Offices of David J. Stern has been forced to substantially reduce its staff, with some estimates being that over half of the firm's employees have been laid off!

In a statement from Jeffery Tew, a lawyer representing the firm, Tew stated "there's been a substantial reduction in staff, it started happening over the past few weeks and many employees received notice today (November 4th)." Before the allegations of improper foreclosure processes arose and the subsequent layoffs, the Florida foreclosure mill was one of the largest foreclosure firms in the nation. While there are no public figures available, firm was believed to have employed 1,000 people, including attorneys and support staff.

While the Law Offices of David J. Stern is losing casework and reducing staff, those cases are being referred to other Florida Foreclosure Mills. If you were facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit from the Law Offices of David J. Stern it is in your best interest to contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today for a consultation.

Recently individuals that used to work for the Law Offices of David J. Stern testified under oath in front of state regulators sent by the Florida Attorney General's office. Regulators have uncovered substantial egregious activity by Stern's law firm. Some of these former employees described an atmosphere where speed was much more important than accuracy. In certain instances, supervisors ordered the workers to disregard legal rules in order to get the foreclosures filed as quickly as possible.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have both confirmed that the companies have stopped referring foreclosure work to the Law Offices of David J. Stern. The two companies took this action after a legal assistant for Stern's office testified that the staff would improperly prepare a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac foreclosure file and then change the code and hide the file so auditors could not review the file when they visited the law office.

Lender Processing Services Inc's (LPS) stock price has continued to drop since Friday as reports of widespread use of fraudulent documents in foreclosure cases continue to emerge. LPS is a Jacksonville-based company that works hand-in-hand with the foreclosure mills that foreclose on a home when a homeowner is delinquent on their mortgage.

Investors are beginning to be skeptical of LPS for a number of reasons. First, the recent foreclosure freeze will reduce the company's business. Second, concerns have been raised that Docx, a subsidiary of LPS, may have improperly created documents when the lenders that they were working for did not have the documents required to foreclose on a home. Finally, last week a lawsuit filed in Mississippi alleges that LPS was involved in a fee splitting arrangement with the law firms that they work with.