The allegations contained within the depositions from former employees of David J. Stern are earth shattering. I was quoted as saying that I was speechless and that if the allegations are true, we are going to have a real crisis on our hands. The thing that absolutely boggles my mind and keeps me up at night is my inability to understand why foreclosure cases are being permitted to continue proceeding when there are substantiated allegations of gross abuses of the court process.
The most significant allegations involve improper or no service of process on the defendants. The typical rationale for continuing to grant summary judgments in foreclosure cases is that no defendant is present to contest the case. I believe the facts will show in the months and years going forward that Defendants were not properly served with some of these foreclosure cases. When there is fraud or flawed Service of Process at the outset, the entire judgment is Void thereafter.
And if they are willing to engage in fraudulent or flawed Service of Process, why in the world would the ensure that defendants receive notices of hearing…especially notices of Summary Judgment hearings? The number of clients that report not receiving any notices at all of hearings–who report that the first notice they get of a foreclosure sale is…the Final Judgment of Foreclosure mailed out by the Clerk of Court cannot be ignored.
Consumers who have been the victims of this improper practice are going to quite justifiably be wild with anger. The pending federal investigations are going to show what those of us in the fight have been saying all along….there are many consumers who have tried to make mortgage payments, who have mailed in paperwork and spent hours on the phone and have done their part to try and fulfill their mortgage obligations, only to have the lenders and servicers waste their time, destroy their paperwork and prevent them from fulfilling their obligations. All of that is bad enough, but what do you say to that homeowner when at the same time they are doing all of this, a court process is going forward that results in the sale of their home out from underneath them….and they had no notice of that hearing….or no service at all?
As an attorney, I am compelled by the quaint notion that we all have a responsibility to protect those around us from the abuses of the bigger and more powerful. I want everyone reading this to think about that immigrant family that has been tossed out of their home by a Plaintiff that had no right to do so. I want you to think about the broken, elderly man on Social Security who was the victim of a fast talking mortgage broker who pocketed tens of thousands in fees on a bad loan…a loan that’s now being foreclosed on by a Plaintiff based solely on a flawed assignment of mortgage.
Recent national polls show a dramatic shift in public opinion on the foreclosure crisis:
Fifty-two percent of likely voters said Wall Street investors and mortgage companies are to blame for most of the problems in the lending industry, while 35 percent faulted individuals who borrowed more than they could afford, the survey indicated. Those percentages changed from July 2008, when slightly more voters blamed borrowers than Wall Street investors and mortgage companies.
Keep in mind that polls like this lag several months behind actual public opinion, which is changing daily. When the general press continues to hear the stories of abuse that is being visited upon Americans at the hands of the banks and institutions and their law firms, the general public is going to be seething with anger. And if you think we’ve got a mess on our hands now trying to sort out who owns and holds mortgages, just wait until we have to try and sort out competing title claims on homes that were sold or seized through improper foreclosures. There is no avoiding this. The claims are out there and they are real. When the general public learns of their right to personal service and of real notice of hearings and proceedings…and when we show that they did not receive notice….wow. As an example, have a read here at what is perhaps the first lawsuit that details the kind of facts I mentioned above. If there are only a thousand such cases in each county, we’ve got real problems and given the numbers reported on….that’s just going to be the beginning…
