Posts Tagged ‘april charney’
FREE SEMINAR- Come See the Pavoratti and Mick Jagger of Foreclosure Defense!
Author: Matthew D. Weidner, Esq.
What a great quote….
In foreclosure fraud, “If Mr. Trawick is Pavarotti, April Charney is Mick Jagger,” said author and activist Liz Courson.
PLEASE COME AND MAKE THIS EVENT A REAL SUCCESS. ATTORNEYS ARE INVITED TO COME AND CONTRIBUTE, CITIZENS ARE INVITED TO COME AND GET ADVICE AND GUIDANCE
See More Below
Please Spread The Word, Free Seminar Saturday October 15….
Author: Matthew D. Weidner, Esq.
A free day-long foreclosure defense workshop Saturday in Sarasota will feature speakers who have become well-known in the state and nation for fighting banks about faked paperwork and so-called robosigners.
April Charney, a foreclosure defense attorney from Jacksonville Legal Aid who is regularly quoted in the national media, is among the speakers slated for the “Save Your Home” event from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. October 15 at the Unity Church of Sarasota, 3023 Proctor Road.
Other speakers are: Sarasota attorney Henry P. Trawick, Jr., author of Trawick’s Florida Practice and Procedure, who will talk about “The Foreclosure Mess; Matt Weidner, Tampa foreclosure defense attorney; and Lisa Epstein, widely-quoted citizen/advocate and owner of ForeclosureHamlet.com.
First Thing We Do…Kill All The (Foreclosure Defense) Lawyers
Author: Matthew D. Weidner, Esq.
The news that April Charney, the Mother Theresa of foreclosure defense is the target of some professional criticism serves as a very painful personal reminder just how dangerous a business it is to stand up, fight for consumers and swear your allegiance to the rights of The Law and The Common Man.
April’s lifework has been the passionate defense of the Common Man and The Rule of Law and like everyone else who has stood up to fight against the Dark Side for what is right, April is now feeling the slings and the arrows of The Attack. (Read Story Here) This news comes on the heels of other widely-reported news that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is under intense pressure from the Obama Administration to stop opposing the terms of a settlement that will let the banksters walk with nothing more than a petty slap on the wrist.
What you see playing out before you is an intense and building conflict between the elites and the rest of the world. I started to say the elites and the common man, but that seems to exclude far too many people. The fact of the matter is the global banking elite, with the assistance of all our elected and appointed leaders, have rigged our economic, political, social and legal systems so that they all work squarely against everyone else down at the bottom. This is no longer a problem where minorities or blue collar workers are being targeted by high cost loans. It’s no longer isolated to members of the military being funnelled through check cashing centers that charge 300% interest. This is a system where all elements of daily life, food, water, gasoline, banking are engineered to extract the most from all consumers and where the profit thereon is accumulated and concentrated at the very top of the pyramid.
Well, what can you do with all this? Well, something is going to happen. Just what….well, that what is really subject to all sorts of opinions and analysis. From where I sit, I don’t see any good outcome. I don’t see any outcome that does not end in bitter, intense and intractable conflict. I’m not just talking about foreclosure here. I’m talking about a country where more than half the people are dependent upon handouts and benefits for survival. I’m talking about a country whose entire economic and industrial core has been gutted, the jobs shipped overseas, the capital and infastructure chopped up and sold for scrap metal….and why? So corporations can show a bigger profit on their quarterly statements. So what can you do? I suppose you can just do like my friend below and laugh….
Why I Laugh- Chink In The Armor
Because if I didn’t I would be blind with outrage. I tried the outrage. It takes a lot of negative energy which made me negative and I knew if I didn’t change, it would consume me. Like so many things I have learned in going down the rabbit hole, too often, you have to look at the issue from a different perspective in order to see the picture. If you learn to do that, what looks like chaos suddenly becomes clear. Who says how I have to look at it? Laughter or outrage? The choice is mine.
When you change your perspective on this part, suddenly a lot of things become funny. I was on the phone w/ this guy as he sat in the back of his Peterbuilt driving the road for casino shows. He had just lost his house and his family at the courthouse steps and the Cash for Keys lady, a woman of eastern descent supposedly representing JP Morgan was banging on the door speaking nearly incomprehensible heavily accented English to his soon to be ex wife while handing over documents demanding all involved parties sign immediately.
One of the documents which the woman handed over, scanned and sent to me, was the form the courthouse crier filled out when the house went back to beneficiary. Who was the beneficiary?
“The Bank”
I’m serious. How is that not roll on the floor laughing? Seriously. It’s gotten that ridiculous.
April Charney, the Mother Theresa of Foreclosure Defense is Under Attack….
Author: Matthew D. Weidner, Esq.
Whether or not you are in foreclosure, you have benefited from the groundbreaking, earth-shattering work done to protect consumers and support our entire judicial system by April Charney from Jacksonville Legal Aid.
This one pioneering lawyer, this Warrior For The People has traveled from one end of this state to the other and all over the country preaching the gospel of respect for the rule of law and defense of those who are most in need.
Along the way April has changed not just the lives of clients, but she has almost single handedly changed the entire bar, by creating quite literally an Army of dedicated and principled attorneys who are committed to fighting for consumers. So important and so respected is her work that she was recently recognized by the Florida Bar for all her work.
And so it is with terribly dismay that I read this hero might be under attack…
Jacksonville Area Legal Aid attorney April Charney has proved a big pain in the ass for giant corporations in the middle of the foreclosure crisis like Deutsche Bank, Wells Fargo Company and Jacksonville-based Lender Processer Services. She gummed up what had been routine and quick foreclosures with questions that led to an exposure of the fraud and forgery that drive many foreclosures. Charney was among the first attorneys to ask lenders to produce the proof they really owned the loans and had the right to foreclose. Attorney generals opened investigations into foreclosure practices in 50 states. Jacksonville’s Lender Processing Services was in the middle of those investigations because it is one of the country’s largest loan servicers and because of the volume of legal documents that company representatives appear to have faked.
WE CANNOT CONTINUE TO LET THE WARRIORS WHO ARE FIGHTING CONTINUE TO SUFFER ATTACKS
REAL INSPIRATION- The Florida Bar Recognizes Our Foreclosure Defense Heroes!
Author: Matthew D. Weidner, Esq.
April Charney, Jim Kowalski, Margery Golant Recognized by Florida Bar as Consumer Heroes
Many years ago, I was just another lawyer flailing about not really sure what my contribution to the profession of law would be. That all changed when I attended a seminar in Tampa put on by April Charney. April was a Legal Aid attorney our of Jacksonville and her seminar covered a topic that at that point in time was just extraordinary….the suggestion that an attorney could actually defend a homeowner facing foreclosure! (I mean, who had ever heard of such a thing?)
April was bold and passionate and was totally committed to the extraordinary concept that homeowners facing foreclosure had real defenses that should be carefully and painstakingly raised. She was equally passionate about convincing all the lawyers who took this session to fulfill their obligations of service to the community by agreeing to take on foreclosure defense cases pro bono and to volunteer to serve at their local Legal Aid Offices. Humble and deferential she gave most of the credit for the early success and the strategies that were being developed to the Legal Aid offices and attorneys who were the force behind this early movement….and to Jim Kowalski and his groundbreaking work. (Read More About Jim Kowalski Here)
Over the years April Charney, with the support of Legal Aid of Jacksonville, crisscrossed the state spreading her message of defense of homeowners and convincing untold thousands of lawyers across this country to take up the charge and fight this good and noble fight. Above and beyond her in person training, she set the bar for sharing work and time and ideas and professional collaboration that has been so critical in this fight.
With her countless seminars and the extraordinary amount of personal time she and the other exceptional lawyers at Jacksonville Legal Aid inspired countless thousands of lawyers to serve their communities and exhibit, in a very real and personal way, the very highest expectations of this honorable profession.
It would be impossible to calculate just how many tens of thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of people across this country experienced first-hand the highest ethical calling of the legal profession because they were served by an attorney who was inspired by April Charney, Jim Kowalski or the fighters at Jacksonville Legal Aid. (No slight to Margery Golant here, I just don’t know her, but I’m sure she’s a fine person inasmuch as the fine company she keeps.)
If you’ve been helped by an attorney in your foreclosure case. If you’ve found a motion out there or a chatroom message or a picked up legal concepts or principles that have been of benefit to you, you have benefited directly from the extraordinary example set by Jacksonville Legal Aid and their team of exceptional lawyers. Please log on to the Jacksonville Legal Aid Website and learn more about their mission…..and if you really do understand the true value of all this service and honorable commitment, make a small donation to honor the good work done by this most exceptional group!
CONGRATULATIONS APRIL, JIM AND MARGERY!
ST. PETERSBURG TIMES SAYS- YOUR FIGHT IS TOP 10 STORY OF 2010!
Author: Matthew D. Weidner, Esq.
Today’s edition of the St. Petersburg Times recognized the top ten people who made a difference in 2010, and make no mistake about it…
if you’re reading this blog…you are one of those who made a difference!
In 2010, Florida’s economy struggled with a growing housing crisis and historically high unemployment. • Locally, the tourist industry fought a rising tide of misperceptions in the wake of a catastrophic oil spill, and a failed rail transportation initiative threw business leaders back to square one. • Here are 10 people who made their imprint on that fast-changing business landscape this year, not always for the better.
I want each of you to understand just how profound this recognition is and just how important it is that each of you take credit by making my own list of the Ten Most Important Forces In The Fraudclosure Battle.
1. The Clients, The Unrepresented, You Who We Are Honored To Fight For- I am most motivated by the heartfelt and very personal struggles that each of you face. I feel the pain and the agony that you who are suffering face and in the face of this continued struggle, your words, your stories, your encouragement motivate, inspire and drive this movement. Those who are suffering through unemployment, who are fighting to save their homes, those who are clinging desperately to the last thin reeds of the American Dream, there are people out there that care about you. You’ve got to stick your necks out, you’ve got to come out from the shadows, you’ve got to get more engaged in this fight. We all are strengthened when you come forward to tell your story. Let 2011 be the year when each one of you reaches out. Join together and let us all hear the chorus of your shared voices.
2. The Honorable Band of Fearless Foreclosure Fraud Fighters- Those who follow this story know there is a band of dedicated and committed attorney soldiers out there that are fighting the good fight, standing up for real, honest and profound ethical principles. These attorneys from across this great state and country are bound together by our commitment fulfill the highest ethical calling of our profession. We are the tip of the spear that is pulling our profession to the forefront of respect and admiration for the courts and the practice of law…we call on our brothers and sisters in the legal profession to join us in this fight. We’ve dusted of and re-read the Constitution of the United States of America, we’ve reconnected with those core and guiding principles, those dreams that brought us to law school in the first place. If you’ve forgotten those dreams, come join us in this fight and have your legal career re energized.
3. The Press- This battle reminds us all that we must fight every day to protect and defend our basic rights. Make no mistake, while foreclosure is a symptom, the larger disease is a broken and corrupt financial system and our entire system of government, both at the federal and state level, struggling desperately to address the evils that have been wrought upon this country. This is not an easy story to tell, and there are facts that those we are fighting do not want you to know. We are making a difference in this fight because our free press has picked up the ball and they are running with it. It’s time for us all to aggressively support and defend our free press, to support those who are working hard to tell the story and to make sure everyone you come in contact opens their minds to the larger conflict that is bubbling across this country. This story is not going away. Every page you turn, every corner you look into, the story gets more sordid and abusive. They will keep digging and God Bless them for that because only our free press can investigate and tell this whole story.
4. The Blogger/Internet Community- Our world is changing right in front of our eyes. The last civil rights battle was fought at lunch counters, on buses and in front of fire hoses and German Shepards. This civil rights battle is playing out through blogs like this one, 4ClosureFraud, Foreclosure Hamlet and all the other communities of interest that have exploded on the scene. Every time you spend a moment on these sites, every time you send a story along through your email chain, you make a difference. We no longer have to wait four years to vote, you cast your vote, you make your voice heard, you shine a light on fraud and abuse, you’re standing up to fight every time you join together with the members of this community online….you are changing this world.
5. Florida’s Office of Attorney General- It must be noted that our state’s chief attorney may come and go, but the staff that moves the office stays on, doing the good work, the serious lifting, the day to day battles for the people of the State of Florida. Long before the other 50 states jumped in, the staff and attorneys from Florida’s Attorney General’s Office were investigating the wrongdoing that was occurring. We must continue to support this office’s good efforts and the unsung heroes that are working behind the scenes to protect Floridians from the the storm that covers this state like a stalled out Category 5 hurricane. This problem will not go away and it cannot be solved by private parties or for profit lawsuits, we must give support to our new Attorney General Pam Bondi as she struggles to wrap her hands around this problem, then we must demand that her office devotes the resources necessary to clean this mess up.
6. Judges, Courts and Their Staff- I want it remembered that when this movement started, when we first traveled to Tallahassee to battle the banks and their efforts to turn Florida into a non-judicial state, I championed the cause of our elected judges, their staff and our courts. The banks and the con artists caused all this chaos then dumped this problem into the laps of our judges and their staff. Our legislature has so far failed to provide the funding necessary for them to mange the crisis. And yet they march along. There are brave, reasonable and thoughtful judges all across this state who recognized the chaos that was coming early on and warned of the dangers and there are judges today who continue to sound the alarm bells. We will be deconstructing this slow speed train wreck for years to come and there will be key judges and their opinions which will clearly define where these battle lines were drawn. I still have faith that our good judges and our courts can pull us out of this mess…I only hope they’ll be given the resources to get the job done.
7. Our Elected and Appointed “Leaders”- I hear nothing coming out of Washington, DC or our 50 state capitals that gives me any hope or confidence that they grasp the scope and magnitude of the larger crisis we are facing. It’s a real problem when “only” 25% of the homes in a state are in foreclosure. It’s a problem when unemployment is “only” 10 percent. It’s a real problem when “only” 25 of homes in America are underwater. None of those numbers are real, they numbers are far worse yet those are the percentages that are tossed around. Worse, I hear nothing out of anyone elected anywhere that gives me any hope at all that they even get the problem, much less that they have any idea how to solve the problems we all face. We cannot yet fathom or appreciate the full depth of the corruption, the fraud, the blatant thievery that has been visited upon this nation, but it will be revealed for generations to come. Make no mistake, both “parties” are equally to blame. If you cling to your naive notions of Republican and Democrat, you’re…well, naive. Wake Up America, we’re a Kleptocracy. All those folks at the top of the pyramid have conspired to rob everyone underneath them…and they don’t care what “party” you’re in…..you had money, they conspired and stole it from you…and neither of your “parties” is going to do anything about it.
8. The Wizards on Wall Street- Congratulations you barons of the new millennium, you false prophets of security and prosperity. 2010 was your 4th most profitable in 30 years. You did it with our tax dollars and through crafty schemes and tricks. You have robbed us all. You did it. You won. You were all so much smarter than the rest of us your sophisticated strategies and glossy prospectuses. And now what? What will you do now? No one has ended up in handcuffs, no one has been seriously investigated, you’ve just been rewarded with more money. (Thank you elected and appointed “leaders”) You are unapologetic. You are unrepentant. I think many of you are so pickled that you can’t even recognize the evil of your ways…..What’s your next trick?
9. My Incredible Staff, My Teammates, Friends and Family- We’re still in the third inning of this 14 inning game. We got here together and we’ve got a long, long way to go. Thank you for your dedicated support and all that you do. God only knows where this will all end up…
10. Florida’s Legal Aid Attorneys- It bears noting that the advocacy on behalf of homeowners started with April Charney and the Legal Aid lawyers who practice in offices all across this state. These folks are the unsung heroes in this battle, and they continue to fight the good fight every single day with little pay and even less recognition. Our entire country is benefiting now from the antiseptic glare of the light shining on the banks and their shady practices…and we have the corps of legal aid attorneys to thank for their pioneering work.
Please keep up your faith and keep ready to dig in and get to work…we’ve all got so many problems to address and working them out will require the concerted effort of every last one of us.
