Foreclosure lawyers’ misdeeds ignored in Florida?
Despite complaints, ethics breaches slip past discipline system
By Todd Ruger
Florida courthouses are rife with evidence of errors and fabrications made by attorneys handling foreclosure cases, and yet so far no lawyers have been disciplined.
With pressure mounting to police its own members, the Florida Bar established a special category of complaints listed as “foreclosure fraud.”
But in 20 complaints investigated in that category, the Bar has not found cause to discipline anyone — even lawyers who admitted to breaking ethical rules.
Some observers say that early track record of ignoring misdeeds by its members raises questions about whether the system of self-policing for lawyers can handle the depth of wrongdoing in the foreclosure crisis.
The complaints have been filed by judges, lawyers, homeowners and the Florida Bar itself, and reflect the issues seen in courtrooms almost daily for the past two years, including forged signatures and backdated documents used to improperly seize homes in foreclosures.
In addition, attorneys for lenders have filed false motions, left out important information that would hurt their case, or skipped mandatory mediations and court hearings.
The state Attorney General’s Office is investigating and found the same evidence of wrongdoing. But with no known criminal investigations launched into the behavior, the public and the court system must rely on the Florida Bar to stop bad behavior by attorneys.
Dozens of complaints against foreclosure lawyers are still pending, including complaints against the head of the four law firms that handled the vast majority of Florida’s foreclosures and often had multiple attorneys handling one file.
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Florida’s Judicial System is the most Corrupt in the Country. WHY in the hell would any FOOL believe the FLORIDA BAR could or would police its own??
Kinda like the Fox guarding the Chicken coop!
I say forget the paper pushing Complaint , and the damn JUDGE FINE THEM INTO BANKRUPTCY! If they don’t pay in court fines, THEY LOSE THEIR LICENSE! WAHLA!
No need for the FLA Bar
Stop blaming the gov’t shills. Prosecute your own cases. When this country was founded most criminal prosecutions weren’t done by state’s attorney’s they were done by private citizens. It’s still doable. I just don’t understand why people aren’t doing it.
here’s a primer…
http://www.constitution.org/lrev/roots/cops.htm
ARE COPS CONSTITUTIONAL?
By Roger Roots JD
I can not understand why David Stern is not charged on even one charge yet, when there are so many documented wrong doings ,but then we heard many judges say ” I have not seen any wide spread problems ” in my district . The criminal lawyers need to be behind bars, not only debarred, and the see nothing,hear nothing, and do nothing judges should seek help from …..
Life Tenure for Federal Judges Raises Issues of Senility, Dementia
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 4:44 PM
From:
“ProPublica.org”
Please contact me ASAP if you can clue me in as to why an assistant AG in FL’s Economic Crimes unit who was authorized to notarize docs for FDLG on Mon, Wed & Fri was notarizing documents on Sunday. ON SUNDAY – when she was only authorized to notarize documents on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 7:00 to 7:15pm. This in addition to documents found notarized in Florida on dates that conflict due to travel. Do you not see anything wrong with this picture?
stop_govt_waste@hotmail.com
http://www.scribd.com/full/39771809?access_key=key-auzo1nrdz3e56e680po
or how line #6 of the affidavit reads “a review of the file is unnecessary and ‘futile’ …..
yet line #7 says “based upon my review a reasonable attorney and paralegal fee of $1,500…”
so the un-reviewed file was reviewed… did i get that right?
Yet another classic case of ‘double-talk’ brought to you by the Florida Default Law Group and the Cullaro’s.
What say you Erin & Lisa?
A quote from the article: “The Bar is frustrated too, because it hears reports of problems but is not seeing complaints filed, Marvin said.”
Complaints MUST be filed before the BAR can take any action. I realize this places an additional burden on the victim of the offending attys behavior, and that the BAR still may not take actions that seem appropriate, but the BARs hands are tied until a complaint is filed.
I think we will get their attentio when we show them that Stern is working with other firms and sharing fees. That is always a good start. If the Bar won’t govern, its simple- investigate them too. David Stern is deplorable and its well noted. Their time will come. Maybe not today or tomorrow but soon. Its going to implode around Stern and then he shall shatter and admit his Client has filthy hands. Not just dirty. Client privileges should be pierced along with the fraud. This is a crazy, evil world. If our judges allow this to happen then they are an active conspirator in the fraud. Anyone looked at it like that? Otherwise they are just stupid – both are equally bad. Debi
We all know the Florida Bar is the fox guarding the chicken house. Its ethics committee to hear complaints against lawyers is a joke. After all, many of those on the committee are lawyers and the citizens on it are well known to be nothing but seat holders who themselves may belong in jail if their lives were investigated. I observed one of these hearings many years ago and it was all a joke the way they ask the one complaining to speak and then allowed a lawyer act to so pios and speak legalees and quote statutes and so forth. The fact is the lawyer told his client to destroy evidence. That was the complaint. The client even said his lawyer told him to destroy the evidence. But what happend that day to me was a joke. Now they do not have to destroy the evidence they just robo-stamp it as nothing but a paper error. When in fact fraud was the intent all along. And the outcome was to be produced by the fraud. Why is it that many do not care if shyster lawyers skate? Why is it these lawyers can take millions of dollars in private property and there are few judges in the land who are indeed great men and women of the judicary? Did our founding fathers see this snake and that is why they created the three branches of government? I think so. And with shysters in the court houses as chief judges we cannot expect any other kinds of judges. After all they don’t want to be put into the basement. I say vote every judge out except the ones who ruled favorably in these foreclosure cases. Maybe someone should start taking down names of all judges in Florida who is a robonaut, and then when election time comes we can inform the voters that judge allowed foreclosure fraud in his/her court. Of course they will want to sue, but it can be done. For the good judges making right decisions and rulings, you deserve a place in heaven where thieves cannot break in. 🙂
Litgant