The New York Times recently published an article on how the State of Florida is dealing with the record amount of foreclosure actions. More importantly though, the article points a few reasons why its important to hire an experienced foreclosure defense attorney when facing a foreclosure.
Florida set aside nearly $10 million to organize foreclosure-only courts across the state. These courts are run by retired judges. While these courts have certainly helped speed up the foreclosure process and freed up dockets for other types of civil cases, foreclosure defense lawyers have expressed some concerns about how these judges run their court rooms.
Foreclosure defense attorneys, including the attorneys at our firm, argue that many of these judges are so intent on cutting down the foreclosure caseload that they may be unfairly siding with lenders at the expense of homeowners. Many of these judges simply ignore contradictory evidence and allow lenders to foreclose on properties that they have yet to prove they own.
Another major issue with foreclosures is that its often difficult to prove who owns the note on a mortgage because of the amount of paperwork and transfers that resulted when banks sold these mortgages as if they were shares in a company. Judges are overlooking this and lender attorneys may be easily committing fraud due to how difficult it is to track ownership of some notes.
The Florida Attorney General’s Office has received many complaints regarding the alleged improper actions of lender attorneys. Some bank friendly foreclosure firms are even falsifying or improperly notarizing documents. Some are reporting incidents where papers supposedly drafted by the same person have extremely different signatures. Additionally, and as in the case involving GMAC, as reported in our blog, there are even bank representatives that are signing, and notarizing, papers in a wholly fraudulent and deceptive manner.
Consider Your Options. Contact Us Today.
We have been successful in defending many foreclosure cases when given an opportunity to develop a plan to properly defend the foreclosure.
If you are on the brink of foreclosure, need a real estate attorney, or just need to assess your legal rights, please contact our office today.