The national media is now picking up on a major issue in foreclosure cases that we’ve been raising in this office for months now….the fact that most foreclosure judgments entered in this state are entered with no admissible evidence whatsoever. Think about that. The Florida Supreme Court estimates that there are over 500,000 foreclosure cases pending in Florida and I’m suggesting that most judgments should not be entered because they Plaintiff has not met its threshold burden of introducing the evidence it needs to prevail in its case.
Legal Analysis- Something is Very Wrong In Foreclosure Court
The issue first came to my attention when a law student came to work for me and started questioning the basics of foreclosure law. This young lawyer, Michael Fuino drafted a memo then questioned how judges accepted the affidavits stuck in all my foreclosure files. Now most times, when you get memos or pleadings from a law student, they’re all over the place…citing the Constitution and the Magna Carta and all sorts of law and rules that have no place in a fast-paced law office. But this memo was different. It was concise and dead on point. I attach it right here for all the world to read:
We continued fleshing this issue out and from that small beginning, the memo was crafted into the motion that appears below:
That memo and then that Motion helped develop the legal analysis that made it’s way into a courtroom transcript which appears below:
And then finally, the national legal news media picks up the story, found here:
Law.com – New Strategy in Foreclosure
I sat in a courtroom yesterday and I watched foreclosure file after foreclosure file get churned through and judgment entered. It pained me to watch this process. I remain and will remain very much bothered by the physical sight of seeing those files, one right after another signed, foreclosure judgment granted. There wasn’t even an attorney for the Plaintiff present. No attorney to confirm the facts in the file or whether the Plaintiff still wanted judgment. Granted there was no attorney or defendant there to oppose the garbage in the files, but what about the fact that there wasn’t even a Plaintiff’s attorney to support the file going forward. The collective value of these judgments was millions of dollars and the law firms that filed these cases cannot even send a flunkie lawyer to push the file through? Were the homeowners in a workout plan? Were they in modification? Were the assignments fraudulent? Were there really original notes in the file? Did the defendants receive service of process? Who was the lender getting all these properties? Who was really owed the money?
NONE OF THOSE QUESTIONS MATTERED IN THE SLIGHTEST BIT…..JUST KEEP CHURNING THOSE FORECLOSURES THROUGH.
I hope that all this will can be righted someday. I hope that we will all take a deep breath and think about what we’re doing here.
