Matt Weidner – Fighting For The American People

Posts Tagged ‘law offices of david j stern’

Hat tip to Nye Lavalle….not just for this article….but for first reporting the abuses of foreclosure mills as far back as 2003.  The truly staggering issues presented by these revelations are just why no one did anything about this.  Even more mind blowing by far is the fact that none of the parties who are responsible for this have ever been held accountable.  Not even today.

Not even today, an astonishing eight years after problems were first reported and a full year after the full blown crisis erupted and nothing, not a single thing has happened to these wrongdoers.  Not the Florida Bar, not the Florida Attorney General, not the FBI or the feds.  No one. Nothing.

The report itself is so mind blowing because it details so many abuses then admits that even today….nothing. No punishment, no immediate shutdowns or supervisory efforts.  And what about the hundreds of thousands of homeowners who suffered under these abuses?  And what about the hundreds of thousands who continue to suffer even today?  Where is the justice for them? When they examine their experience with “our” court system will they believe they have been treated fairly?  Will they believe the scales of justice are balanced fairly?  Of course they won’t and with good reason.  Just pile this report on to the stack (actually it’s more like a warehouse now) of other reports and evidence of the abuses Americans have suffered at the hands of the 1% and their minions who operate all across this country.  And for those struggling to understand what the people in Occupy Wall Street (and Tampa and Miami and Chicago and Seattle) are protesting against, I will suggest to you that they are protesting because of the information that is printed in this report.  One of the fundamental issues being protested is the fact that there is no accountability.  As detailed in this report, the banks and their law firms have been permitted to abuse homeowners….and desecrate our legal system…with impunity for years. And nothing has been done about it.  Even today.

From the Report:

In December of 2003, a Fannie Mae shareholder began alerting Fannie Mae to foreclosure abuse allegations, and in 2005 Fannie Mae hired an outside law firm to investigate a variety of allegations regarding purported foreclosure processing abuses. In May 2006, the law firm issued a report of investigation in which it found that:

[F]oreclosure attorneys in Florida are routinely filing false pleadings and affidavits…. The practice could be occurring elsewhere. It is axiomatic that the practice is improper and should be stopped. Fannie Mae has not authorized this unlawful conduct. Further, the report observed that Fannie Mae did not take steps to ensure the quality of its foreclosure attorneys’ conduct, the legal positions taken in the attorneys’ pleadings, or the manner in which the attorneys processed foreclosures on the Enterprise’s behalf.

Also From the Final Report:

For example, when Fannie Mae terminated the Stern Law Firm, it estimated it would incur approximately $5.5 million in total costs. The costs include $4.6 million in file transfer fees (this estimate represents $200 per transfer for approximately 23,000 loan files). Fannie Mae estimated all other associated costs at approximately $900,000.

There were indicators prior to August 2010 that could have led FHFA to identify the heightened risk posed by foreclosure processing within Fannie Mae’s RAN. These indicators included significant increases in foreclosures, which accompanied the deterioration of the housing market; consumer complaints alleging improper foreclosures; contemporaneous media reports about foreclosure abuses by Fannie Mae’s law firms; and public court filings in Florida and elsewhere highlighting such abuses. Although FHFA’s management has yet to publish the results of its special review of Fannie Mae’s RAN, the examiners’ preliminary findings confirm that at least one of these indicators – deteriorating industry conditions – should have provided adequate warning of the increased risk associated with default-related legal services.

FHFA has not developed formal policies to address poor performance by law firms that have relationships – either directly through contract or through its loan servicers – with both of the Enterprises. FHFA-OIG identified instances where Freddie Mac terminated for poor performance law firms that processed foreclosures on its behalf, but Fannie Mae continued to use the firms. FHFA did not specifically review such terminations and, therefore, lacks assurance that law firms with histories of performance deficiencies do not jeopardize the safety and soundness of the Enterprises.

Federal and state regulators and law enforcement officials subsequently initiated probes into whether banks and foreclosure law firms improperly seized homes using fraudulent or incomplete paperwork. For example, in August 2010, the Florida Attorney General announced that his office had launched investigations into allegations of unfair and deceptive foreclosure practices involving three Florida law firms. The three law firms were part of Fannie Mae’s RAN and included the Law Offices of David J. Stern, P.A. (the Stern Law Firm).

And now the New York Times Article:

Fannie Mae, the mortgage finance giant, learned as early as 2003 of extensive foreclosure abuses among the law firms it had hired to remove troubled borrowers from their homes. But the company did little to correct the firms’ practices, according to a report issued Tuesday.

Only after news reports in mid-2010 began to describe the dubious practices, like the routine filing of false pleadings in bankruptcy courts, did Fannie Mae’s overseer start to scrutinize the conduct. The report was critical of that overseer, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and was prepared by the agency’s inspector general.

In one notable lapse, even after the agency reported problems to Fannie Mae in late 2010 about some of the approved law firms, it did not request a response from the company, the report said.

“American homeowners have been struggling with the effects of the housing finance crisis for several years, and they shouldn’t have to worry whether they will be victims of foreclosure abuse,” said Steve Linick, inspector general of the finance agency. “Increased oversight by F.H.F.A. could help to prevent these abuses.” New York Times

FHFAAUDIT

The collapse of the Law Offices of David J. Stern is causing chaos and costing taxpayers millions of dollars.  Clerks of Court, judicial assistants and judges across this state are left sorting through files and processing Stipulation to Withdraw paperwork and generally left to try and sort out the mess.  That costs every single taxpayer money.  Multiply that by hundreds of thousands of files in counties all across the state and you’re talking a massive burden on this state’s taxpayers.  Meanwhile, the clients, including Fannie and Freddie, must now go through each of their files to assess just what kind of a mess they have on their hands.  The resulting time and attorneys fees will add many months and millions of dollars into the mess.

When the general public and taxpayers are paying for all of this, I have a real problem when the Fat Cats that caused all of this are not forced to pay the costs….where is any justice, any equality, any fundamental fairness in all of this?  Where are all the managers and lawyers and bright financial people that put all of this together?  I bet they’re still driving their obscenely expensive cars, living in obscene castles, with obscene boats.

How do our government leaders allow this to continue?  Why no handcuffs?  When will Florida’s Attorney General step up, speak out and release findings from the on-going investigation?  Many mechanism exist to try and reclaim some of the costs, but the most black and white immediate way is to dismiss all pending David J. Stern cases which are not verified and force them to be refiled under the rules mandated by the Florida Supreme Court to protect all consumers.

HOW CAN OUR COUNTRY EVERY REGAIN OUR PROWESS IF WE HAVE LOST THE WILL TO METE OUT JUSTICE?

New York Times

By now, the cat’s out of the bag, pandora’s box is blown open, the horse has left the barn….The Law Offices of David J. Stern processed tens of thousands of foreclosure cases all across the state.  Earlier it was reported that many of Stern’s clients had pulled their files from his office, next it was reported that there are countless numbers of sales that are continuing to occur across the state even though the files were not ready for foreclosure.  The whole situation has caused even more chaos in courtrooms all across this state and EVERY SINGLE TAXPAYER IS PAYING FOR THIS CHAOS.

How do you calculate the amount of court, staff and judge time that is being spent in trying to deal with all this chaos?  It’s certainly difficult to put a number on this figure, but it makes me very angry to know that Florida’s Foreclosure Baron still has his multi million dollar yacht and insane and obscene homes, while every day taxpayers are paying to try and clean up his mess.

And that’s not all.  As you read from the article below, there are major other problems that must be investigated….and that too costs us all money.  When will it stop?

Recently out of law school and looking for work, scores of young Florida attorneys found steady paychecks in burgeoning firms whose business is based on repossessing the American dream.

Today, more than 260 attorneys work at four of Florida’s largest foreclosure firms, and 48 percent of them have been practicing law for less than three years, according to Florida Bar records obtained by The Palm Beach Post.

Of 156 attorneys who started the year churning out foreclosures at the massive Plantation-based operation of David J. Stern but have since left or been laid off, half had been practicing law for less than four years.

With this fall’s allegations of forged foreclosure documents, fraudulent notarizations and questionable affidavits submitted in tens of thousands of foreclosure cases, those nascent lawyers are now under a cloud of suspicion.

Full Article Here

A real area of systemic abuse in the foreclosure court are overcharges for services that are routinely and regularly added into foreclosure final judgments.

This is another one of the profoundly serious issues that we’ve been raising for some time and now judges across the state are paying attention to this issue.

If just a few hundred dollars are added into each of the 69,000 foreclosure judgments that have been disposed of in this state in the last several months, just think of how much money we’re talking about…..and I believe the number overcharged is routinely thousands of dollars more and it affects hundreds of thousands of dollars in judgments…..NOW WE’RE TALKING ABOUT REAL MONEY THAT’S BEEN ROBBED….. Talk about defendants being robbed of due process, talk about a violation of fundamental rights, talk about a massive amount of additional money being stolen….stolen…cheated…stolen….

“I don’t want to throw anybody in jail, but I’m getting really angry, and I’m not going to tolerate it anymore,” Gardner said. “I want some answers. This stuff isn’t getting through on my watch.”

At least two of the cases Gardner flagged involve Florida Default Law Group in Tampa, which is under state investigation.

Consider this case.

The process server, Firefly Legal, served two named defendants in Land O’ Lakes in August 2009. The invoice reflects that both defendants were served, but it also included charges for two unknown spouses and for two unknown tenants, even though none of those four people were found, according to court documents.  Three days later, the invoice shows, the process server attempted to serve the main defendants and unknown spouses again – this time in Indiana.

The total bill was $1,633.50. Gardner says a reasonable fee for this case would be $175.

TAMPA TRIBUNE ARTICLE

The Wall Street Journal today estimated that it will cost $685 billion to overhaul Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  The reality is no one has any idea how much it will cost to try and bring some stability to the US mortgage and housing markets because all the talking heads and “leaders” refuse to acknowledge just how deep and pervasive the problems are.

Lets just think about the Law Offices of David J. Stern for a moment.  The putrid mess of concocted and fabricated documents that have been spewing out of this office for years have now so thoroughly polluted record title ownership in Florida that it might literally be impossible to clear the titles that emanated from this firm.  What shall we do with all the foreclosure judgments and titles that are now of record in counties all across Florida?  What should homeowners do who are currently being foreclosed on by the once mighty DJSP? The mess that is DJSP is a mess that was a creation of Fannie and Freddie and it occurred under their watch and supervision.

From a big picture perspective, it is totally irrelevant if a homeowner did not defend or file a pleading in a foreclosure case in which fraud was committed.  Our courts have a duty under the United States Constitution to prevent the kind of systemic abuses that have occurred from occurring and our courts have utterly failed in this regard.  The weaknesses and vulnerabilities of our court system were systematically exploited and violated for years, not just by this firm but others.  But then what does it matter, I mean these people aren’t paying their mortgage right?  Oh yeah, the problems that have been exposed are going to wreak havoc upon the broader United States economy.

I cannot imagine that this tiny little problem called David J. Stern has been factored into any of the wild estimates floating around and they certainly haven’t factored in the civil unrest that should come when more and more consumers realize they’ve been abused by the monster that was the Law Offices of David J. Stern.  But then none of this big picture stuff matters because the homeowner has not paid his mortgage right?

Wall Street Journal

Fraud, sidestepping and abuses permeate the entire foreclosure process.  And oh yeah, inflated and billing and charges for services that were not performed.  But none of that matters because it’s foreclosure right?  And who cares about homeowners in foreclosure anyway?  Well how about all  of us because every single American is going to absorb both the larger societal and individual costs of the systemic failures and abuses that are now being exposed all across this country.

Read the attached article that appears in the Tampa Tribune very carefully.  Read the admissions and quotes by the lawyers and parties involved in this conduct.  Ask yourself, “How many times was all of this repeated across the State of Florida?”, “What is the aggregate total of adding a few hundred dollars here, a few thousand dollars there?”  Consider very carefully the cumulative impact of just the conduct these firms are admitting to, the ask yourself, “If this is what they are admitting to what else is out there?”

EVENTUALLY YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT A WHOLE BIG STEAMING POT OF MONEY

MORE IMPORTANTLY, CONSIDER THE IMPACT OF FLAWS IN THE SERVICE OF PROCESS PROCESS

Remember, we all, every one of us, eventually pay these bills.  Not the lenders, not the attorneys, you and me and our kids and Grandkids….every single one of us.

Finally, remember that failed service of process means VOID JUDGMENTS.  There are no statutes of limitations on failed service of process claims because if there is not proper service of process, the court never had jurisdiction over the party and the foreclosure judgment has no legal force or effect.  BEGIN RESEARCHING THE TERM VOID AB INITIO

Tampa Tribune Article

THIS IS BOMBSHELL JOURNALISM PEOPLE. NATIONAL PRESS START FOLLOWING THIS TRAIL OF CRUMBS….BIG STORIES AWAIT.