Matt Weidner – Fighting For The American People

Posts Tagged ‘shapiro & Fishman’

Whenever anyone’s substantive rights are being destroyed, we all need to be concerned, very concerned.  The stories below present, in terrifying detail, a phenomena that is occurring all across this state.  Basic, fundamental and key Constitutional Rights are being trampled upon. Forget for just a moment about the “minor” violations that are occurring in foreclosure courtrooms and how this represents such an abdication of the sacred oath taken by our judges to uphold the law and protect and defend the Constitution.

One of the key principles of our entire system of government is that it is open for full inspection at all times and that the rowdy mob that is the American people are not just able to participate in the government….they are absolutely required to participate in their government.  Most importantly, all courtrooms must be free, open and accessible to the people. This is so whether the court is hearing small claims cases, death penalty cases or even foreclosure cases.  The fact that judges now feel emboldened to ignore the Constitution so that they can rush along doing the important job of serving the banks and foreclosure mills (Yes, even the mills that are investigation by the Florida Attorney General) is a terrifying testament to a fundamental breakdown in our system of government.

This cannot be allowed to continue.  Read the excerpts below and understand that once major violations of Constitutional rights like the right to open access are permitted, judges will not just wake up of their own volition and honoring those rights again…..they will get comfortable in closed courtrooms and that’s the way it will stay…..

Monday Aug 23, 2010. Court room 4A Palm Beach County Courthouse. I was with a friend who had a hearing at 9am. We were greeted by the Floor Receptionist and told we had to wait for our team……Now they are calling them teams…….the Plaintiff and the Defendant……..my friend was Pro Se. We still had to wait for the Plaintiff to arrive……She was 20 minutes late………there was an armed guard outside the door of Court room 4A. As we approached to enter, with our team, I was asked if I was party to the hearing I said I was with my friend, the next best friend, and observing , the guard told me I could not go in. I asked why, she said because I was not a party to the case, I said I have never been refused entrance before, and the guard said I could not go in. I asked if she was denying the public the right to enter the courtroom and she told me I would have to wait outside…….that there was not enough room…….I waited outside for 10-15 minutes made a couple of phone calls and then she said I could go in…….There were plenty of seats when I went in…….So I was rather concerned that I was denied access to our public court rooms. But you feel helpless up against them….I felt like my rights were being violated……

“On 8/30, I had a Summary Judgment Foreclosure hearing on Palm Beach County’s “Rocket Docket”. The judge spoke for 14 minutes to the crowd, of mostly pro se defendants, about how they should just agree to the summary judgment and the plaintiffs, (whose attorneys (Shapiro & Fishman had a dedicated courtroom and to whom he referred to as “my attorneys”) would be gracious (Ha!) enough to allow them to stay in their homes for 120 days if needed (even though the statute says he only has to give them 30). When it came to hearing arguments which were fully briefed and provided to the court (pursuant to the instructions of the Divisions head judge) he only allowed 30-60 seconds for argument, failed to read any of the papers, failed to review the plaintiff’s foreclosure package,flatly ignored the Affidavit filed in Opposition, ignored my plea for a trial, signed the judgment and dismissed me. I never was permitted to even read the proposed judgment or to examine the “newly discovered” allonge which Shapiro’s counsel said I had no right to see. Thank God I had a court reporter!”

I want to know why attorneys who practice in these courtrooms are allowing this to occur.  I want to know why the press (national and regional) are not covering this issue.  Shame on both groups for allowing this unprecedented attack on our fundamental rights to continue.  Why are defense attorneys allowing this to occur?  Why are you not taking these pro se and observers by your side and demanding that they be permitted into THE COURTROOMS THAT THEY PAID FOR, THAT THEY OWN, THAT OUR FOREFATHERS SHED BLOOD TO KEEP OPEN? That Sheriff only has a gun and that judge has no authority when he seeks to exercise it in a manner so repugnant to the Constitution.

WHY ARE ATTORNEYS AND PRESS NOT STANDING UP TO FIGHT THIS TYRANNY?

Sometimes the screams of attorneys and activists who are protesting the conduct of the foreclosure mills seems like voices screaming in the wilderness.  Having said that, the following press release from the Florida Attorney General’s office gives me some hope that raising all these alarms is not totally in vain.

TALLAHASSEE, FL – Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced his office has launched three new investigations into allegations of unfair and deceptive actions by Florida law firms handling foreclosure cases. The Attorney General’s Economic Crimes Division is investigating whether improper documentation may have been created and filed with Florida courts to speed up foreclosure processes, potentially without the knowledge or consent of the homeowners involved.

The new investigations name The Law Offices of Marshall C. Watson, P.A.; Shapiro & Fishman, LLP; and the Law Offices of David J. Stern, P.A. The law firms were hired by loan servicers to begin foreclosure proceedings when consumers were in arrears on their mortgages.

Because many mortgages have been bought and sold by different institutions multiple times, key paperwork involved in the process to obtain foreclosure judgments is often missing. On numerous occasions, allegedly fabricated documents have been presented to the courts in foreclosure actions to obtain final judgments against homeowners. Thousands of final judgments of foreclosure against Florida homeowners may have been the result of the allegedly improper actions of the law firms under investigation.

The Attorney General’s Office is also investigating whether the law firms have created affiliated companies outside the United States where the allegedly false documents are being prepared and then submitted to the law firms for use.

Subpoenas have been served on each of the law firms listed above, and the investigations are ongoing.

Click here to see the Mother Jones story and read the subpoenas.

The Florida Supreme Court published its Rule that as of February 11, 2010 requires foreclosures complaints to be verified.  A Motion for Re-hearing or Clarification was filed by Shapiro & Fishman seeking clarification of this rule.

I am dumbfounded that the foreclosure mills continue to file complaints post-February 11 that are not verified, but they are apparently doing this across the state with impunity. (If anyone is now seeing verified complaints, please post this information. Likewise, if everyone is still seeing unverified, please advise.) Page 10 of the Published Amended Rules states that comments to the rule must be received by the Court by April 12, 2010. Shapiro has filed a Motion for Rehearing and I believe they and others are using this as a basis to argue that they do not need to comply with the rule now.

However, the language on the comments refers only to the amendments to form 1.966 (a), the Final Judgment form, and not Rule 1.110(b), the Verified Complaint Rule.  I don’t see any problems with the Final Judgment Rule at all.  And if my read of the Rue  is correct, Rule 1.110(b) is solid, good law with no legitimate legal basis for challenge or rehearing in any way.

Did Shaprio and Fishman catch this or did they read the Rule carefully and are just filing a baseless and improper Motion?

The Rule and Comments here sc09-1460

supremecourttaskforcecomments1

The Florida Supreme Court’s Residential Task Force spent a year reviewing the practices of the foreclosure mills and determined (I’m paraphrasing here) that they were engaged in systematic fraud and misrepresentation in courts across the state. (The full report is here)

I’m concerned that the report raises serious constitutional issues…I mean, if the Supreme Court makes findings of fact that citizens are being abused by systemic fraudulent and improper practices and the practices continue largely unchecked, aren’t there due process issues that the Federal Courts are obliged to address?  This is an issue that will eventually catch the attention of law clerks, academics and  law school professors who will eventually provide some scholarly work on the subject.  I can tell you that a very real practical consequence of all this mess will be instability in the real property markets for decades to come….you see Final Judgments of Foreclosure that are based on facially incorrect information, fraud or misrepresentations are void or voidable for the next twenty years.  The good people that are buying REO homes that have been subject to the foreclosure process simply cannot be secure in their homes.  Plaintiff’s attorneys and the investors who actually own the notes that were secured by the mortgages that were improperly foreclosed will be coming….just wait.

Anyway, in an effort to curb the abuses, the Supreme Court of Florida enacted a rule that required the foreclosure mills to verify the foreclosure cases they’re filing in bulk across the state, effective February 11, 2010. (Copy of the rule  here)

“Verified” means the Florida Supreme Court is asking the Plaintiffs and their attorneys to swear or affirm that they have the right to invoke the awesome power of the courts of this land as a key component of their effort to deprive citizens of their homes and property.  Now asking a party to prove they have the right to invoke the power of the court before that party wield such a powerful force shouldn’t be such a big deal…problem is, the foreclosure mills are not comfortable or are totally unwilling to make such a basic and fundamental affirmation.

In comments submitted to the Florida Supreme Court (found here) Shaprio & Fishman told the Supreme Court (and I’m paraphrasing here), “You see court, foreclosure is like dogs playing poker….it’s hard to explain and difficult to grasp, but let us lay it out for you here.”  Read carefully the comments they’ve made…there’s a little slip of the ethical tongue  in paragraph six when they comment about the fact that notes and mortgages are sold back and forth and the end purchaser cannot verify any of the key facts in the complaint….interestingly the drafter calls them, “alleged facts”…you see the author of the comment concedes they’re not even sure about the facts.  Anyway, the balance of Shapiro’s comments are essentially the fact that none of the parties the Plaintiff’s attorneys bring before the court are in a position to verify all of the facts necessary to foreclose.  To me the admissions in the comments are staggering….they’re telling the Supreme Court we cannot possibly be required to actually prove we have the right to foreclose and what we’re owed.

The comments also point to a much larger problem the Supreme Court and all of us are going to have to come to grips with real soon….

MEDIATION IS NOT GOING TO WORK AT ALL BECAUSE THE PARTIES TO THE MEDIATION DO NOT HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO EFFECTIVELY MEDIATE.

ANOTHER THING TO KEEP IN MIND PEOPLE…

EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF FORECLOSURE CASES FILED AFTER FEBRUARY 11, 2010 THAT ARE NOT VERIFIED WILL NEED TO BE REFILED TO COMPLY WITH THE RULE ANY JUDGMENT BASED ON SUCH INCORRECTLY FILED CASES IS VOID.

With that in mind, I just cannot understand why the Chief Judges in every circuit across the state are not just dismissing all these cases?