Two Stories from Today’s Wall Street Journal…the problem is these stories reflect the great peril that we are all in due to the misdeeds of the banksters. Our courts and our country’s entire consumer financial system is mired in a deep, dark muck. The evidence of crimes and corruption, malfeasance and greed abound in every single courtroom and on every single street in America. And yet, still you will be hard pressed to find any real sentiment to support punishment or even a true accounting of all the wrongdoing….well, sure there is New York AG Eric Schneiderman and Elizabeth Warren.
But how in God’s name have we not heard one peep out of the President of the United States or any candidate? How is it that Florida’s AG is completely radio silent on this issue? How is it that courts all across this country still churn through foreclosures in the face of all of this? Isn’t that “moral hazard”?
After the robo-signing mess exploded last September, court officials in Florida, the nation’s busiest state for foreclosures, required lenders to swear that all the information in their foreclosure lawsuits was “true and correct.”
The new affidavits have made judges quicker to pounce on obvious flaws in foreclosure documents, such as when the loan amount doesn’t match the number included in the lawsuit. But some judges say the foreclosure process suffers from broader problems beyond their control. Wall Street Journal
And
The foreclosure system has slowed most of all in states where courts are aggressively scrutinizing paperwork submitted by loan servicers when they move to seize homes. In New York, Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman issued an order last October requiring lawyers for mortgage companies to sign affidavits affirming that documents from their clients were accurate.
New York State has the lowest foreclosure-completion rate in the U.S., according to 1010data.
U.S. officials say the legal settlement they hope to reach with the banks will help the nation’s housing market heal by allowing banks to eventually rev up foreclosures. But loan servicers still will clash with some judges who scrutinize whether foreclosure paperwork meets state requirements.
“I don’t see how any settlement is going to … bind a judge anywhere,” says O. Max Gardner III, a lawyer in Shelby, N.C., who represents borrowers in bankruptcy cases. (Wall Street Journal)
