This week I had 6 Foreclosure trials scheduled and countless hearings.

I found it most infuriating earlier in the week where, when I started to properly defend my client’s case, and after I had alerted the Plaintiff to many of the problems with their case, the court sua sponte offered to grant the Plaintiff continuances.  I of course objected furiously, but it was no use.  The court granted the Plaintiff continuances…and in doing so, gave them carte blanche and full opportunity to go back, prepare for all the problems with their cases, including obtaining or fabricating documents they would need to succeed in their case.

And while courts give lip service to the notion of Equal Justice, I am confident we cannot find a single example of a case where a defendant in a foreclosure case was granted a continuance because they were not prepared, or they needed additional time or there were claims raised by the plaintiff that they were just not prepared to respond to.  When a homeowner is back up against the wall, there is no relief.  And yet, when the biggest, most powerful, most well funded corporations in the world are in local courts appearing before elected and appointed circuit court judges….when those corporations claim unfair surprise because a homeowner is actually defending….we see repeatedly where they are given every break in the world.  So much for equal justice.

But when we were permitted to go to foreclosure trials,

…when the homeowner was really given his day in court….his full day….we scored two relatively easy victories.  There is so much wrong with foreclosure cases today, and so many cases banks are just walking through foreclosure judgments with the flimsiest and sometimes downright completely deficient evidence.  Even foreclosure plaintiff mill attorneys are now aghast at what they are getting away with. Everyday I speak with good foreclosure plaintiff attorneys who cannot believe that courts grant judgments when they don’t have any evidence to support the judgment.

The promissory note is not here in court your honor…but we’ll send it.

The bank witness is not here in court your honor…but will you find the Plaintiff is entitled to collect a million dollars?

I know we’ve said Bank of America owns this mortgage for 5 years now, but we want to change the name to Wells Fargo on the Final Judgment…ok?

Incredibly, each of these things happen…we would all be terribly shocked to find out just how often they happen….The extent to which this is occurring should be alarming. An examination of these problems should warrant an inquiry…but it does not.  And that’s just one part of it.  Is this worse or more problematic than the systematic way in which bank witnesses are sashaying into court, reading of their scripts and lying about their qualifications as business records custodians like good little parrots?

Do we not all have an obligation to stand up and say something here?  Should not all lawyers…even those who are benefiting from this recklessness…this madness stand up and acknowledge that it is wrong?

I’m sure this is all perfectly fine.  I’m sure that there’s some greater and more important purpose in play here that will work out to the larger benefit of the judicial system, to individuals and to our society as a whole.  We should all just sit aside and participate…become active supporters of all this.

What could go wrong?