“Marshall Craig Watson, P.O. Box 460862, Fort Lauderdale, suspended for 91 days, effective 30 days from a May 30 order. Between 2006 and 2011, Watson’s company handled thousands of foreclosure cases on behalf of banks, lenders and financial institutions. The Bar received numerous complaints against Watson during that time from four members of the judiciary as well as defendants in foreclosure actions. (Case No. SC12-2731)”
~
Former Foreclosure Mill Owner, Marshall Watson, Suspension Approved by State Supreme Court
Marshall C. Watson, one of the original “robo-signing” attorneys, has been suspended for three months as part of an agreement with the Florida Bar.
Watson was one of 11 attorneys in South Florida disciplined in the latest action by the Florida Supreme Court. Another attorney Luis Musa of Coral Gables, was suspended for six months after being arrested on cocaine charges. A third attorney, Howard Michael Scheinberg of Davie, was suspended for two years for private communication with a judge during a criminal trial — 949 cell phone calls and 471 text messages.
Watson agreed to plead guilty in a proposed consent judgment that accused him of failing to supervise or train his employees in foreclosure-related work. Watson also paid $30,000 for a record-keeping analysis by the Bar, plus $5,931 for its investigation.
Watson ran a so-called foreclosure mill – Law Offices of Marshall C. Watson – where it became common practice to rush thousands of foreclosures through with quick review and sign-off to attest to accuracy of documents, leading to the coining of the phrase “robo-signing” in the media.
Copies of the suspension docs below….
More to come on this…
~
4closureFraud.org
~
SC12-2731 THE FLORIDA BAR vs. MARSHALL CRAIG WATSON
SC12-2731 Suspension Modification – Florida Supreme Court
A 91 day suspension is much more than a 90. That means he basically lost hid license. Still he should be in jail along with everyone else in that firm. I for one got lucky with them. Since they work so fast and loose. They have lost their first against me and now on the second try they
messed up again. Hopefully this will cause them to loose their accounts and just get shut down.
Florida Default Law is not Stern. that was Echeverra who was previously been in trouble with the Bar before Florida Default Law. John is Marshall’s brother and Vic Tobin, the judge that was no doubt negotiating for a position with Watson’s office while still on the bench has received nothing in the way of an investigation. Its a good ole’ boys network that refuses to go away.
A 90 day vacation? I think 7 years behind bars would send a message.
Einstein is a bad example to use for denouncing fraud.
you seem to have missed the point.
Sounds a lot like what happened to FDLG over in Tampa:
FLORIDA DEFAULT LAW GROUP, NOW = RONALD R. WOLFE & ASSOCIATES
SAME CRIMMINALS….DIFFERENT NAME…ALL MEMBERS OF THE SAME CLUB…FL BAR
SO, what happened to the “Judge” who colluded with Mr. Watson? I mean, this “Judge” did receive 949 cell phone calls and 471 text messages..right?
I suspect a smart defense attornys could use the 90 suspension to their advantage. There are correct ways and incorrect ways for new counsel to appear. If Plaintiff’s counsel has not been ‘corretly’ subsituted then their filings are void.
The key is to raise the right objections at the right time. Maybe bring a motion for Summery Judgement in favor of Defendant, and when they file or appear in oposition to object to appearance when not correctly substituted. Your attorny can fill you in on the legal nicites of this stratagy.
Just so you know…Marshall Watson resigned his position with Watson Legal in Dec. 2012. In February, 2013 the resignaition was filed with the Florida Dept of State – Division of Corporations and named John Watson as president along with a name change to CHOICE LEGAL GROUP. Funny, how the website for Choice Legal does not list any of the attorneys on board, nor it’s directors, owners, etc. I wonder if John Watson is his son? That slimey bastard, Marshall, all he got was a 90 day suspension?? If the common man had commited the fraud that he did there would be a stiff jail sentence. And he probably gave the firm to this John Watson to protect the assets of the firm if anyone were to file a civil suit against Marshall. Don’t ya think?
It is his brother. They did NOT shut down the firm, (name change) and are currently accepting new cases. Both which seem to be in violation of the terms of the suspension.
@ FF – I don’t believe I said they shut it down. But yes, I did say there was a name change. Florida Default Group (David Stern) did the very same thing. They did a name change to Ronald Wolfe & Associates filed 4/3/2012. The only difference is that nothing was filed with the state for Florida Default Law Group that either was a resignation of David Stern or a change in the Articles of Incorporation changing the parters of the firm. The Tampa Tribune reported that Ronald Wolfe purchased the firm from Michael Echevarria, the majority owner in January 2011…so why the name change 2 yrs + later? And what happened to the rest of the owners (like David Stern)? The change filed with regards to the Articles of Incorporation only refer to Ronald Wolfe as being a “partner”. It is just unbelieveable that the AG closed the file on Stern, nobody else bothered. And he’s still operating the David J. Stern lawfirm out of Miami. Maybe the latest with the Bar filing a 17-count complaint in April will finally rid us of one more thief!