North Port pair fights fees in foreclosure skirmish
By Todd Ruger
SARASOTA COUNTY – A North Port couple says a Florida law firm charged them unwarranted and excessive fees as they tried to save their home from foreclosure, and their attorneys believe the firm did it to hundreds of other troubled homeowners, too.
Last week, David and Kayleen Keyser filed a complaint in their foreclosure case against Kahane and Associates law firm in Plantation, the latest in a string of class actions from Gulfcoast Legal Services in Sarasota that target unfair collection practices in foreclosures.
On Wednesday, Kahane abruptly dropped the foreclosure case against the Keysers, which canceled out the Keysers complaint. Gulfcoast attorneys say it was on the eve of the lender having to produce the underlying invoices for the fees.
That means the truck driver and grocery store manager can remain in their house where they raise three children without paying the mortgage, for now. The lender or firm would have to pay court costs to file foreclosure again.
“I don’t expect the foreclosure suit to be refiled anytime soon,” Gulfcoast attorney Elizabeth Boyle said.
But it does not mean the Keysers will stop pursuing their class-action suit. Gulfcoast plans to refile the lawsuit as early as today in a new case, trying to discover if hundreds of other homeowners faced the same inflated and unsubstantiated fees from Kahane since 2006.
In a written statement, Robert Kahane, the managing shareholder of the Kahane law firm, said the allegations are absolutely false.
“It’s an utterly reckless act for them to make such allegations about our charges without even asking for a breakdown of those charges or any information or documentation supporting them,” Kahane said.
Um, so you are complaining that these “Predatory Borrowers” didn’t ask for a breakdown of the charges and then your firm has the nerve to dismiss the case “on the eve of the lender having to produce the underlying invoices for the fees?”
Isn’t that a bit hypocritical?
So much much for vindicating yourself, right?
If it was “absolutely false” and “utterly reckless” then why not produce the invoice to the court and have it on record and prove your innocence?
No, instead, just like every other time a bank’s attorney gets accused of some wrongdoing, the case gets dismissed to bury the allegations…
I wouldn’t expect anything less…
You can check out the rest of the article here…
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What am I hearing about the banks creating law firms who in turn are creating their own Process Serving companies? Also, “serving” the defendants but losing the originals and filing lost original affidavits with service date and time convenient for the case? I served a foreclosure from one of these “Mills” 2 weeks after the homeowner closed on the loan modification.
This reminds Me of what the Catholic church were doing, here in California, about ten years ago. They were being sued by some large class—or perhaps county AGs. In any case, there was some huge collection of papers involved. The Catholic Church said the papers would give the evidence to prove their innocence.
The California Supreme Court, I believe it was, said the cases could not be held, as there was a statute of limitations problem or something. According to the news article, the Catholic Church secretly went to the various county AG offices, to take back the papers.
I have no idea what was in those papers, but I do know this: Taking back papers which will prove your innocence, or using the state’s supreme court to prevent that innocence being proved in court—either of these actions alone—proved the Catholic Church not at all innocent.
What is actually in the papers is irrelevant. The Catholic Church’s actions prove their guilt, as no one behaves that way if innocent.
This Kahane Associates situation is the same thing. No one needs to scuttle around in the shadows, to prove his innocence. Sneaking around actually proves the opposite.
To prove innocence, stand up in court, or on “60 Minutes“, or something like that. Clarity, from shining a bright light on the subject, is what is needed, to prove innocence. So, Robert Kahane, stand up, and prove “the allegations are absolutely false“. We are all waiting…
Like Kahane is going to be accountble he is just happy that
he is in business and making money they could give a shit how
money money money push the papers around maybe the other
party will get tired and give up
Listen it is not going to change Kahane just took all Stern’s employees when they were laid off these so called employees were not re trained and Kahane is just going through the motions these people that worked for Stern were no trained and Kahane has them working for him he is doing the same thing it needs to be sop at the seed level how people think this Kahane is a Stern I heard they were partners at one time long ago Kahane i
Goes back to the practice of taking voluntary dismissal to avoid an adverse ruling or being held liable for sanction-able offenses.