The practice of law is a profession. It takes hundreds of thousands of dollars and many years before one can become an attorney. Once you are an attorney, there are considerable expenses associated with maintaining a practice. Paying professional staff, maintaining an office, paying malpractice insurance, paying Bar dues…and…
When you are in the business of defending consumers and standing up for basic rights, an attorney has the considerable added expense of defending oneself from the lawsuits, cease and desist letters and the threats and intimidation tactics that come with the territory when you are taking on the establishment, the banks and the most powerful forces in the universe who are hell bent on silencing dissent, quashing any protest or resistance and preventing the larger audience from understanding just what they are doing.
The truth is, I am honored to practice law and would do it for free, but I run a business and collect a fair and reasonable fee for doing what I do. I think the article that appeared in the St. Pete Times starts an interesting discussion about the fees charged by lawyers. The question every consumer should ask, whether it be lawyers fees or anything else is….
“Am I getting value for what I am buying?”
There is another point that is not made in the article, but that is far more significant than anything addressed in the article…..
Just think about the extraordinary impact the defense of foreclosure cases has had on our larger economy and the profound social and political implications. Each case has an impact in its own right, but the cumulative impact of attorneys all across this country standing up to a system that has grown wild and out of control is that we have exposed to the larger world a vast and pervasive crime spree that touches every single aspect of our lives.
Given the perfectly good legal defenses of unclean hands, lack of capacity, fraud, fraud in the inducement etc… It is interesting that even the seasoned foreclosure lawyers mentioned in the St. Petersburg Times Story say the likelihood of winning a case is slim to none. In many cases the strong defensive litigation being mostly a delaying tactic which buys time. After which it is little more and a lever to force the lender/servicer to accept either keys for forgiveness of a deficiency judgement – or a modification of the terms to give, for now, a more affordable monthly payment.
Both of the results, forgiveness of deficiency or modification of terms, could have been achieved by a legislative change or meaningful medication/modification if the system was more like bankruptcy proceedings.
The method of foreclosure – modification etc is inherently a function of the state. Note the variation in laws from state to state, some having judicial, some not, some having both, some allowing deficiency judgements and some not.
The failure of the State of Florida to step up and DO something, other than a rocket docket, that moves directly towards the eventual outcomes instead of protracted litigation is a crime.
Failure to hold the lenders and services feet to the fire, to put some of them in jail for forgery, fraud, perjury and the REAL CRIMES they commit with impunity means they have no compunction to act in good faith.
There seems to be no public policy consideration of the cost in dollars and lives of putting people on the street. Be it feeding and clothing them when homless, the disruption to schooling and work access, etc. We all pay, one way an another every time a family becomes homeless and blown apart.
Someone needs to wave the Sword of Solomon, to threaten the banks into accepting a modification or replacement which results in an equitable solution , that keeps people in their homes when things get tight, that addresses the public policy reality.
I appreciate everything the defense law firms are doing, but overall, in legal terms, they are getting slaughtered.
In spite of the banks fielding mostly incompetent counsel and relying on tenuous documentation and laughable affidavits the banks manage to win most of the time, or beet the home owner into accepting a settlement on the banks terms.
From the point of view of a legal boxing match, the bank wins a knockout most of the time, and when it fails it wins on points. Only once is a while does a home owner win against the bank.
The banks fight dirty and like WWF the ref makes no complaint when the bank smashes the home owner over the head with a metal folding chair in the form of a forged allonge. It’s all good spectator sport and the designated looser, (defendant) disappears into the night.
Given a fair fight, and the flaws in the banks paperwork, affidavits, capacity, chain of title etc.. if the playing filed were level we should be seeing 25 to 50 percent legal victories, not 2 to 5 percent. Especially since counsel for the Plaintiffs are SO disorganized and often incompetent.
We fight like hell, and “win” more often than not….most often the cases just stall out, but frequently we get modifications or walk aways that the client wants….it’s a continual fight.
I like how you explain on how attorney collect the fair for their expenses.
Is lawyer’s fee worth paying for?