Finally Some Action to Curb Abuses by Lenders and their Attorneys!
Across the State of Florida, citizens are losing their homes to banks that have no right to take their homes and who have not provided any documentation to support their claim to take their home. Plaintiffs attorneys representing these banks have widely engaged in unethical and sometimes fraudulent practice, filing foreclosure complaints at the direction of their clients without first obtaining the documents they ethically should have been in possession of.
The judges and court systems are now totally clogged and overloaded by foreclosure cases that are stalled or that cannot otherwise be completed because of outright fraud or other documentation problems that have been perpetrated by Plaintiff’s firms or their attorneys. I have spent years and countless hours in court arguing motions that such actions by Plaintiffs were improper and tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of homeowners across the State of Florida have spent untold amounts of money fighting such improper foreclosures. Some consumers, attorneys and even judges have dismissed claims that the lenders were engaging in widespread improper practice and frankly, I was beginning to lose hope that anything would be done to curb such practices. I am pleased to report that the Florida Supreme Court has taken full note of the wide range of improper practices and in response, the Court has adopted new rules that will serve to diminish such practices
Relief Comes From The Florida Supreme Court!
First, rule 1.110(b) is amended to require verification of mortgage foreclosure complaints involving residential real property. The primary purposes of this amendment are:
(1) to provide incentive for the plaintiff to appropriately investigate and verify its ownership of the note or right to enforce the note and ensure that the allegations in the complaint are accurate;
(2) to conserve judicial resources that are currently being wasted on inappropriately pleaded ” lost note” counts and inconsistent allegations;
(3) to prevent the wasting of judicial resources and harm to defendants resulting from suits brought by plaintiffs not entitled to enforce the note; and
(4) to give trial courts greater authority to sanction plaintiffs who make false allegations.
So there you have it folks, that language was taken directly from the published opinion of the Florida Supreme Court. The full text of the opinion can be found here. The foregoing is just one small section of the 21 page rule opinion, and I will provide much greater detail in future posts.
The bottom line is the Rule and the new forms is a complete vindication of the arguments made by responsible and ethical attorneys who have been disturbed the improper conduct being perpetrated on consumers in courts across the state.
The ruling provides hope that justice and the law of order may actually prevail!
