Will Florida Finally Punish Banks and Lawyers for Foreclosure Document Fraud?
Foreclosure proceedings in courts nationwide have exposed a swamp of fraudulent documents, and in some cases — though perhaps far too few — those bad docs have sunk attempts by banks to take people’s homes.
Some of Florida’s courts, however, — particularly courts in Lee County — have come under fire for compounding the documentation problems by ignoring the rule of law in order to rush through foreclosures. And a new rule put in place by the Florida Supreme Court to ensure that documents being used in foreclosures are properly certified hasn’t worked well, thanks to a new type of robo-signing that has sprung up to get around it.
In a reflection of how bad things have gotten, lenders are asking judges to “ratify” foreclosures done with robo-signed documents, the Palm Beach Post reported on Saturday. While such “ratification” would not, as a matter of law, mean much, the Post says, it might discourage people from challenging the foreclosures.
With luck, two recent developments may help really clean up the fraud in the Sunshine State. First, an appeals court has asked the Florida Supreme Court to clarify judges’ power to address the fraud, and second, the Florida Bar Association is finally taking a stand.
See full article from DailyFinance: http://srph.it/fDjgIg
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Abigail,
very well discussed and easy to understand…
Does anyone now the difference between the dismissal of a foreclosure case by the judge as opposed to one being dismissed by the lender? If dismissed by the courts and not the lender, how can the lender refile? On what basis?
Thank you….
PS: regarding the above article…I have wondered why the Florida Bar and other bar associations in other states have not done anything before…I undertand that there are sometimes collusions with the judges and attorneys and the lenders…I have myself had some interesting experiences in a situation regarding this …
it appears as if crime pays…but selectively…the crime of the lenders are so blatant…and yet our tax dollars keep bailing them out but they keep trying to regain the homes at botom dollar and resell at top dollar…also, if the signature of the homeowner created the negotiable instrument in the first place, does the homeowner not then become an investor to recap some of that earnings after they sell and resell their notes repeatedly??? Somehow it seems as if this is high class slavery in America…using the signatures of the homeowners for such obscene profits and them using the hoemowners to be slaves to keep paying all that interest rates over a long period of time which when calculated has already paid off the principal, or most of it but the interest superseceds the amount of the loan…do the numbers…thanks for your thoughts on this…hope what I wrote makes some sort of sense…?
ABIGAIL, THANK YOU FOR YOUR RESEARCH, INSIGHT, THOUROUGHNESS AND CLARITY! YOU BRING A SMILE TO MY HEART!