May 9, 2011
Lisa Epstein
607 Gazetta Way
West Palm Beach, FL 33413
Chief Judge Peter Blanc
Fifteenth Judicial Circuit
201 N. Dixie Highway
West Palm Beach, Florida 33431.
RE: The Courts Belong to the People of Florida
Dear Judge Blanc,
On May 6th 2011, many Floridians, including myself, were barred from entry into courtroom 9D in Florida 15th Judicial Circuit Civil Court in West Palm Beach, Florida. These Floridians were pro se defendants in foreclosure proceedings, foreclosure defense attorneys, and court observers. A pleasant court staffer politely informed us that the courtroom was “too crowded”, and directed us to another courtroom if we wished to observe foreclosure proceedings.
The proceedings were court arranged, court scheduled, and court planned case management conferences for the imploded foreclosure mill, The “Law Offices” of David J. Stern. As you are well aware, Mr. Stern wrote to the Chief Judges across Florida informing of his intent to abandon 9,000 pending foreclosure cases. This letter started a volley of very public letters between you and Mr. Stern. The end result; a court devised solution to aid and smooth the transition of Mr. Stern’s cases to new counsel by devoting four days in May to Stern case management eulogy conferences, 250 cases per session, two sessions per scheduled day.
As a citizen activist in the foreclosure fraud crisis, I was deeply interested in attending, observing, and documenting these proceedings. I contacted you last April, warning of the current and looming negative impact on the judiciary of foreclosure fraud, land record fraud, and judicial refusal to acknowledge and sanction foreclosure mill violations of many rules of procedure. You responded by correctly informing me that “the courts must remain independent and impartial.” The Court’s catering to Mr. Stern’s professional and financial dilemma, brought about by his firm’s well documented, pervasive, professional misconduct diverged from your stated inability to intervene in tens of thousands of pending cases to initiate a court review and/or investigation of the now fully acknowledged widespread fraud upon the courts, foreclosure fraud, and land record fraud. The pampering of live and fallen foreclosure mills is alarming when one learns of the recent disturbing disclosure of court dependence on foreclosure plaintiffs to fund 64% of the Florida court operating budget. Are justice and special concessions meted out in proportion to the amount of the operating budget a litigant is slated to fund, “you get what you pay for”?
Florida’s courts, at ground zero of the foreclosure crisis, are squandering the opportunity to be a shining light of American justice. Refusing to allow a single Floridian family to be dispossessed by misleading statements, outright falsehoods, and/or fraudulent, unauthentic, often photo-shopped documents would have protected the integrity of Florida’s judiciary. Simply enforcing Florida’s laws, rules of civil procedure, attorney professional conduct rules, rules of evidence, intent of the foreclosure verification rule, service requirements, ex-parte hearing criteria, etc., and sanctioning repeated plaintiff willful disregard for all of these hallmarks of fair litigation might force the foreclosing entities to weigh the consequences of foreclosure fraud against other more reasoned approaches are beneficial, as opposed to harmful, to Florida’s families, communities, and economy.
Barring that, may we at least not be barred from observing in Florida courts as the crisis continues to unfold? As Justice Canady stated in his November 17, 2010 on point letter and administrative order to all Chief Judges, “The courts of Florida belong to the people of Florida. The people of Florida are entitled to know what takes place in the courts of this state. No crisis justified the administrative suspension of the strong legal presumption that the state court proceedings are open to the public.” Justice Canady continued, “the chief judges shall ensure that the judges they supervise and the staff who report to these judges….are not violating the rights of Floridians by improperly closing judicial proceedings to the public.”
Sincerely,
Lisa Epstein
cc: Chief Justice Charles T. Canady, Florida Supreme Court
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4closureFraud.org
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Letter to PBC Chief Judge Peter Blanc RE The Courts Belong to the People of Florida
lisa, what a powerful letter. thank you.
it makes me think that we need hidden cameras in our court room in order to get the truth out to the public.
how sad is that?
you and michael are brave warriors. you help us all in so many ways.
thank you lisa your the best
YOU DO ONLY ONE OF THE THINGS THE BANKS ARE DOING EVERYDAY TO YOU AND AMERICA AND SEE HOW FAST THE JUSTICE SYSTEM CAN WORK!
Banks are above the law for now and have been for a long time, WE should of learned that by now.
Thank Goodness we see it, and more are seeing it everyday.
There is a new day dawning! may take much harder times to bring it about, but, that too is coming!
Its people like Lisa that are shinning the light so folks can see.
A letter isn’t going to make a difference the court is in on this they are helping STERN make a transition
with his files let him transition from Jail seriously this is not going to end until everyone goes to the courthouse and starts something are you guys afraid , afraid of what liars, Judges who want their pension , courts that need the money from fraudclosures to survive. STERN is the only one that thinks his s===t does not stink put hinm in a cell with a toliet out in the open see how he feels
this is all planned the Judges don’t care about the letter Lisa although it comes from your heart it does not matter you are fallen on deaf ears these young mill attorneys know nothing the paralegals were
from McDonalds that worked for Stern. Stern was threatened by a young girl he was having an affair with that lived in a trailer park she wanted a milliion dollar house or she was going to open her mouth
she has the house he used to pay for her childs day care she was maybe 18 years old he had money for that..how come he had money for that if you deposed his former employees she was working there between 2007-2011 her name is Christina she used to brag about how she had Stern wrapped around her finger and this is an idiot that gets special treatmentfrom the courts???>??? He is an animal All of you that have foreclosures from Stern you should bring into court the chouls that prepared them you would be shocked they are so freakish
yet when we arrive in court and do not know if the paper work is fraud and the judge gives the homes to the bank and a florida lawyer questionsthis and replies that he is not there to help find the fraud but only to pass motion. if judges were impartial they would not be helping stern he would be in jail for the crimes he has committed. her i sit losing my home yet 3 years ago when all this started and i asked wells fargo for help what i shouldnt have . i should have just let my home to foreclsoure and i would have been cought up in this mess. because i did the right thing and asked for a mod i am being vicimized by wells fargo. where is our help and why are we victims not getting our help .., i am so saddend everytime i wwalk into my daughters room. so everyone thinks its appropriate for wells fargo to continue to lie lie lie and we get no releif from these lies. move files,, lose paper work because keeping my home is not profitable. pa=====leze. go help us all we need and we need it fast please/
Awesome letter Lisa!!
RE The Courts Belong to the People , and the debt belongs to the lenders, and the fraud belongs to their attorneys who presented it in foreclosures . They want to lower values another 30 % or so , they have a plan and they are executing it , ( Rocket Docket ) regardless of laws and the people .
Why would they not stop this, when everybody knows what they are doing .
The elected federal, state or county officials that have stepped up to the plate and spoke about this can be counted on one hand . The mention of foreclosure out in the public is just as silent . Our governor see’s nothing
and our AG has slapped a few wrists .
Keep Rocking the Boat Lisa
Thanks
Is it ever going to stop!? Stern is getting 9000 cases of fraud padded by the judges to defraud more people?? What’s it going to take? Can we get all the judges thrown off the bench and start with only ones that understand the law please? Is that really too much to ask? If they don’t understand real estate, they should not be on the foreclosure bench for gods sake! Perhaps they all should be mandated to take a real estate course so they under stand the laws. The laws were implemented for hundreds of years. We can’t allow them to pretend the laws don’t adhere to them ….or do they? This is disgusting. Stern deserves only one consideration— which cell is better for you to be raped in just like u raped everyone in florida. Lifes a bitch and then you die. Why isn’t stern in jail with Bernie already?! I am so sickened I have to stop now. Our courts belong to the banks. How sick and wrong and F ed up is that!? Debi 561-389-9339
Debi I don’t understand what you mean he is getting 9.000 cases padded is he getting the cases back I’m confused…he needs to be in JAIL all his files are a lie I know all the employees and they all fudged
so many of the files why aren’t the employees deposed with a lie detector test we have to do something this is unjust has anyone called the White House I did , I wrote them nothing happened
STERN did this and needs to be accountable the Judges are all crooked bring in Judges that don’t know STERN he needs to pay he is an ANIMAL A LIAR A CHEAT A PIG he sold his backoffice and then
9 months later he started laying people off I think he was in on that one also let’s see if the SEC
delves into this one if he is out away we all will be screaming hooray like when Osama died Stern is
in that category please do not tell me they are just letting him go he ruined my life I have so much trouble because of him Please everyone in Florida needs to get on this one
i’m sure there’s some b.s. “special circumstances” they’ll try to claim regarding the stern hearings….who knows
Yes ! Lisa, Thanks for all your hard work to stand up for our rights-great letter to the Judge
but the Court will probably cite some “Fire or Health & Safety Hazzard Code”. Even resturants are regulated by the number of seats, entrance & exit doors and restroom capacity.
That is the only thing I can think of to “legally” keep people out of Court rooms.
Was there actually an “overcrowded situation”….standing room only ?
My only comparison to a situation such as this Judges lousy excuse is the Casey Anthony case.
They are selling tickets by the number of seats available.
The news media frenzy has filled all parking spaces, Motels & Hotels, B&B’s and taken over Pinellas County.
This Judge does not want an “audience” that can witness and testify about their unfair procedures that they condsider as “distractions”.Foreclosure hearings need more people to show up and bring the media with them to witness the jumping Kangaroos. They tell us “standing room only” as they allow
plaintiffs with “NO STANDING” to steal homes. If you are allowed access will you be allowed to take audio recordings or have a Certified Recorder do transcripts ? It would be so revealing & helpful.
NAY ! I’m really asking too much to expect that. When & If my case ever comes up-I want a Notorized
Transcript-perhaps a Transcriber would be allowed to attend? One person could not be called a crowd -Are Court Recorders expensive ??
Sorry but I cannot resist the urge to make further comment……
As Lisa states in her letter-250 cases per session-two sessions per day-four days in May.
DO THE MATH-it seems impossible to “re-assign” or handle this caseload with careful scrutiny.
The Judge and Clerk created this “crowd” when they determined the schedule of cases.
they had to be aware of the number of people that are “required” to attend not to mention those
that merely want to observe..
9000 cases ?- even at a rate of only two persons per case would be 18,000.
They should rent a Circus tent for this event !
I’m shocked they did not allow “telephone testimony” as they usually do for the Plaintiffs.
Could it be they deliberately caused this “over crowed” situation ??
Are they going for a GUINESS BOOK OF RECORDS for most cases in FOUR DAYS ??
Go get ’em Lisa!!!! Non-judicial foreclosures are UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND ILLEGAL. NO ONE should be able to steal someones home in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA like that.
Stern must know something because he is getting SPECIAL treatment very SPECIAL trreatment
he just screwed all of South Florida and is getting away with it the guy is evil he has a lot to answer for when he meets the great crreator. Stern caused me terrible strife and I was not a homeowner he touched the WHOLE community nothing about his files is true nothing they made things up as they went along all he cared about was getting paid. A great punishment would be him having to make license plates or train guide dogs in jail This Stern knew nothing about busines nothing just screwing people it is all about himhe needs to go to JAIL if he doesn’t then the Judges were afraid to stir the pot
Why is he being treated with Kitt gloves do you ever wonder….