Is it “AR-KANSAS” or “AR-KAN-SAW”? I’ve never been sure. But here’s one thing I am sure of. Florida’s sister southern state passed a brilliant piece of legislation that should be a model for states nationwide…it is simple, it is basic and if the banks would have followed the principles established, they wouldn’t be in nearly the mess that they are in now. The premise is simple….get your documents in order, get the note and records, then file foreclosure.
If you’ve got them all, then things just move along. Now compare this bill’s simplicity and basic legal principles with the horrific legal quagmire that the banks now find themselves squarely in the middle of. They’re stuck in a messy thicket of lies, fraud, deceit and failed business practices. The reason is clear. The financial services industry failed to put even the basic paperwork together from the beginning, then rather than accept that, fix the problems and come to court admitting the problem, they tried to cut corners and lie their way out of the thicket.
There is still hope. We admit the problems. Good lawyers and judges force the mortgage and financial services industries to admit their errors, then we establish fair ways to work around the problems. That’s what good lawyers and judges do. They fix the problems created by businesses. But we lost our way through this crisis. Rather than lawyers and judges forcing them to fix things at the front end, we continued to allow them to shovel their mess into our legal system without letting them know the terrible consequences that would come when the problems inevitably collapsed on top of themselves.
The Arkansas bill provides a way out of the wilderness…..
