As questions over servicers and ownership of notes and mortgages have now made their way into the public discourse, I’ve been looking backwards, deconstructing these arguments and tracing the roots of the arguments and the very real questions which are being debated around the world and the admissions which are now part of the Congressional record.

Some of the earliest serious questioning of the issues now raised in our world centers of economic powers actually occurred right here in Pinellas County.  As these issues continue to bubble and froth and the toxic pot of title stew continues to boil, I predict that we will eventually circle back and ask the question….

“What if we had listened to the good judge and stopped all of this in 2005?”

It really is interesting to read the article…a nice historical perspective….

New York Times

Just this morning, I received the opposing counsel’s response to our motion for a rehearing in the Taylor v. Deutsche Bank case out of the 5th District Court of Appeals in Florida….the decision commonly referred to as, “This Horrible Opinion”.

As clearly expressed in our Motion for Rehearing, we believe the 5th District issued a fundamentally flawed opinion and, similar to what was the case with the Riggs opinion, we timely petitioned for a rehearing.  Those of us who are standing up to fight this insane march toward foreclosure and the devastating breakdown in our court systems that has created and perpetuated a fundamentally flawed legal process are in the middle of an epic battle.  So many powerful forces are aligned against those of us who are fighting for the integrity of our courts and there are so many profound and perplexing questions that are provoked in the middle of this crisis, but the biggest one I have is why our circuit court judges and on some level appellate court judges seem predisposed against the interests of normal consumers in favor of the flawed lending and credit systems that provoked this crisis. Those questions will remain, but for now read the response brief.  The mind boggling aspect of the opposing response is the very light treatment given to many of the substantive facts and law argued in our motion.  Their basic argument seems to be that the court was just right and they spend little time addressing the significant issues we raised in our Motion for Rehearing…..dig in and enjoy….

taylorrehearing

taylorrehearingresponse

Actually it probably happens hundreds, perhaps thousands of times a week across the state.  A hapless but hopeful homeowner is working with his lender (or someone he thinks is his lender), thinking that he is on the verge of a mortgage modification, when behind the scenes, the lender has convinced a judge to grant foreclosure and his home is sold.

There are remedies when this happens, but you’ve got to act quickly.  Hopefully you can catch this within ten days after the foreclosure sale.  Even if you don’t remember judgments are void or voidable if there is fraud or mistake in the files…and there is quite a bit of fraud and mistake in most foreclosure files.

Remember to challenge the sale and attack the judgment.  Read the case below, Elliott v. Aurora for an example of the facts that the court will consider….you might consider contacting the Plaintiff’s attorney but good luck getting through to someone and in my experience, you will not get their attention until you have pled out a very good case with compelling facts and good case law.

elliott v. aurora

As more counties adopt their foreclosure mediation programs, I’m concerned there will be more default judgments and sales as the homeowner is distracted by the mediation and does not respond to the lawsuit.  After meeting with those who will be running the mediation program here in Pinellas County, Mediation Managers, Inc., I’m hopeful that this will not be a major problem here in our county.  I’m convinced those running our program will be working hard to prevent errors and mistakes that will lead to false judgments.

Getting a foreclosure sale cancelled is darn near impossible.  Getting a foreclosure sale set aside is even more than darn near impossible.  Getting a foreclosure sale set aside when a third party has purchased is, well, somewhere far to the north of darn near impossible.

Unfortunately every day consumers are victims of lies, fraud or just plain mistakes when lenders and servicers intend to cancel or not go through with sales but their attorneys just go right ahead with sales.  I’ve had clients of lenders demanding that their own attorneys cancel sales then be told by their own attorneys that they cannot cancel  a sale….. A FLAT OUT LIE.

Well posted here is a fantastic Order from Forclosure Fraud Fighter, Wendell Finner.  His case represents that all too common situation of a client lulled into complacency thinking no sale will happen because the servicer has assured them when BAM!, a foreclosure sale goes through.

Trust me, getting this situation corrected is a near impossibility, but this feat was accomplished by a great lawyer from the Jacksonville-area.If you’re interested in learning more about his great legal work, contact him at:

First Coast Consumer Law

Wendell Finner, P.A.

340 Third Avenue South, Suite A

Jacksonville Beach, Florida 32250-6767

(904) 242-7070
(904) 242-7054 fax
wendell@beacheslaw.com

HE GETS THE VOTE FOR FORECLOSURE FRAUD FIGHTER OF THE WEEK!

Cities and counties across the state stand to collect millions of dollars in fees from the foreclosure mills because they either ignore out of ignorance or omit because they are unaware of lien laws, municipal liens that are recorded in counties all across the state.

I am aware that Pinellas County and the City of St. Petersburg have documented millions of dollars in uncollected municipal liens.  It’s time for taxpayers to demand that this money be collected from the MILLIONAIRE FORECLOSURE MILLS AND THEIR TITLE INSURORS.

To be clear about the issue.  Valid and enforceable liens are recorded against properties and the mills just don’t name the lien holders, whether they be the City or the County.  Even though the mills are ignoring these liens, they exist, they are there and they cannot be ignored when they are attacked at any point in time subject to the statutes of limitations.

Stay tuned for more on this issue…it’s where the real financial impact of this foreclosure chaos will start to pay recoveries for those impacted by the foreclosure crisis chaos.

For now, be sensitive and aware of the facts that the Millionaire Foreclosure Mills and the Fat Cat Wall Street bankers are avoiding paying legitimately assessed liens.  Contact your city and county commissioners and code enforcement staff and find out what is being done to collect this money.  Forward this blog post to your elected officials, particularly those at the city and county levels and ask them to inquire of their legal staff what is being done to enforce these liens.

IN THESE LIEN BUDGET TIMES, EVERYDAY TAXPAYERS CANNOT AFFORD TO ALLOW THE MILLIONAIRE FORECLOSURE MILLS TO PROFIT AT OUR EXPENSE.

On March 1, 2010 a warrant for my arrest was signed by a Pinellas County Judge.  The warrant was signed based on an affidavit of probable cause that was signed by an officer of the private company that the Pinellas County Sheriff’s office has contracted to process all their probable cause affidavits and arrest warrants.  For hundreds of years, only actual deputized officers of the Sheriff’s office signed these affidavits and they were kept within the Pinellas County courts, but that process was recently contracted out to a private company.

When I appeared before the judge, I reviewed the affidavit and it was clear that whomever signed the affidavit got the facts all wrong.  I’m 175 pounds, not 204.  I’ve got brown hair, not white hair.  I’ve got blue eyes, not brown eyes. And most importantly, I couldn’t have committed the serious felony crime the affidavit accused me of because I wasn’t even born yet on the date the affidavit said I committed the crime.  When I appeared before the judge and pointed all this out her response was astonishing…while she admitted that the affidavit was totally wrong and that it was clear from its face that I could not have committed the crime, she told me, “The prosecutor admits that the affidavit is wrong and while you may not have committed this specific crime, the affidavit says you committed a crime.  The prosecutor assures me that they believe you’ve committed a crime even if it’s not the crime that I’m going to sign this arrest warrant for and that’s enough information for me.”

The judge signed the arrest warrant even though she knew and the prosecutors admitted that the facts in the affidavit did not support my arrest.

There were hundreds of attorneys in the courtroom who had clients that were being arrested on precisely the same obviously wrong set of facts, but they could do nothing.  The facts were all wrong, the files were all wrong, but the warrants were signed.  If this weren’t bad enough, I thought about the thousands of files on the judge’s bench where no attorney were present.  She was so busy and those accused had no attorney to challenge the facts in the affidavit, so the judge just signed thousands of those cases every single day.

Sorry lenders, sorry plaintiff’s attorneys, I was not arrested.  The story above did not happen.  Not exactly that way anyway.  But every single day in courtrooms all across this country, acts no less severe than the ones I described above are happening.  While an arrest is the most serious exercise of judicial power, close behind it is the judicial act of throwing a person or family out of their home.  Unfortunately, this dire judicial act is being done hundreds of thousands of times across the country every day based on fraudulent information and based on facts that are in direct contradiction to taking that most severe judicial act–throwing a person out of their home.

We truly are living in a Kafaka-esque world where this scenario above plays out in courtrooms across the country every day.  Lenders and their attorneys are committing gross fraud on the courts.  The practice is shockingly widespread and pervasive.  The lies and tactics employed by the banks and officers of the court to fulfill their ultimate goals of taking back property (to what end?  who will buy them?  how will the banks recover $$ even after they have taken the property back?) are becoming very well documented in depositions, SEC filings, class action lawsuits and other definitive places.

There are bright spots though….the Sixth Circuit of Pinellas County, Florida and the Second District Court of Appeals in Florida is one such place.  The recent opinions released by judges from these two courts make it clear that the judges take their jobs and their solemn responsibility to their citizens seriously.  The opinions that force lenders to prove their right to foreclose and challenge the improper tactics of the banks and lenders, make it clear that in their courtrooms and neighborhoods at least, the law and the rights of consumers and citizens are more important than the arrogance, bullying and abuses of nameless, faceless, shifting entities that are attempting to steal our country!

We can only hope that courts in the rest of the country will turn their gaze to Pinellas County, Florida….

The Flames of Justice Are Burning Bright!