First, on the subject of unlicensed practice of law and notaries or paralegals you should know this.  If the individual is not a licensed attorney in the state they cannot do anything else but proof your spelling and witness your signature.    They are not supposed to even tell you what forms to fill out or file.  Yes, there are some forms or motions that need to be filled out but how you fill them out and what you do afterwards is often far more critical than simply filing the form.  This has been a big problem in Family Law and Immigration too and I suspect this is where a lot of these people come from.   I'll explain more in a bit, but for now keep this in mind that they should not be doing anything more than witnessing your signature and literally crossing a "t" or dotting an "i."

As a side, you can get help, for free, in filling out loan modification applications and some limited advice from HUD approved housing counselors throughout the state.  Here are some in Pinellas and other in Florida as a whole.  These groups help explain what is needed, how it needs to be prepared, and in some cases what can be substituted (say a wage statement if w2 are not available).  More importantly, they know when to say "go talk to an attorney" when your questions go beyond simply filling out the forms as the bank's are requiring.  They do not give advice on fighting a foreclosure because that is not what they do.  So, here I can give my blessing, but remember this advice should be free and from one of these agencies. 

Now here's the harm in using this unlicensed practice of law.  By definition, if they are telling you what to file, you have entered a defense in the case.  The Judge will assume that by doing so you both know that a foreclosure had been filed against you (you have been properly noticed and served) that you understand the risk (that if the Bank establishes its case and you do not properly dispute it with admissible evidence you WILL lose your house and probably still owe money), and that if you do not bring up a particular issue or fact that the issue does not exist (i.e. if you fail to mention that you do not know who the bank is or how they own the note then that bank probably owns the note by your failure to point this out).  So, if you file a motion that fails to establish the one defense that the Judge would have considered not only is it too bad for you now, but it's probably too bad for you later when you go up on appeal or finally get an attorney to help because you had to bring up these issues and you failed too.

Next, just because you ask something does not mean that the Court will make it happen.  Sometimes you have to ask several times and make very specific arguments why the particular request is worth the court's time and energy and not just a red hearing to delay the process.  So when this person tells you to file a motion or discovery request they can't do the rest which includes sending good faith letters, arguing the issue in court and doing follow up motions and hearings to either get what you're seeking or establish that the Bank is simply being evasive and not co-operating.    Our legal system is argument and not form driven and no motion wins a case by itself.

All cases are not the same.  Each foreclosure case I take requires several hours of looking through the documents filed, the client's documents, the public record, SEC filings, the internet and the bank's discovery responses to establish what that particular loan's story is.  A Judge cannot assume just because a case is filed by someone like David Stern that there is something horribly wrong with the bank's title to the note and everything in the file could be made up.   So you need to be able to tell your loan's story and point out where little red riding hood went off the path and into the woods to see where the wolves may be.  I've had several cases where my client's only defense comes down to the bank not putting forward admissible evidence like the 4th DCA attacked in Glarum.  So a form Motion to Dismiss would have done nothing in those cases.

Finally, I've also seen instances where people are told to simply ask the court for more time to get a short sale done.   Admittedly there are many Judges who will respond positively to this.  However, a Judge will only follow this to a point and only for so long as the Bank does not ask to move the case forward.  The damage in this comes when you suddenly want to start defending the case.  The problem is that, by saying you need more time, you may have effectively admitted that you owe this particular bank this money and that the foreclosure is otherwise valid (otherwise you would be fighting).  The sad other side to this is that the homeowner could have raised their defenses and still pursued a short sale or modification while the defenses were before the court.   There's nothing that prevents you from doing both.

So please be careful in what advice you accept and where you accept it from.  It's your house and you should get the best licensed legal advice you can find.

Today's Florida Foreclosure News!

I just want to say always look at the numbers.  I glanced over this AP article and noticed that Obama, in his new jobs plan, made an apportionment for foreclosures as well.  However, as with all things from Washington, read between the lines and look at the real numbers.  Apparently the Plan includes "$15 billion to refurbish vacant and foreclosed homes or businesses." 

That sounds swell until you do the math.  The Huffington Post currently puts the number of vacant houses at 19 Million. WOW!  And that's only in April 2011 and it only covers vacant residential houses.  That does not include soon to be vacant houses, businesses or simply houses which are in absolute disrepair because the homeowners can't justify putting anything into them while facing a bank who refuses to negotiate.  Yes, there are other numbers but the range is only 600,000

So here comes the math to see just how little Washington appreciates this problem.  I know they are big numbers, but let's spread them out...

$15,000,000,000.00 money to refurbish ÷ 19,000,000 vacant homes = $789.47 per house!  You can't get you house painted for that, let alone repair a roof, put in grass, put up drywall or replace an air conditioner. 

YES, that's right Obama has calculated that it will only take $789.47 per house to get our neighborhoods cleaned up and people working.  Keep in mind this is how much he asked for before congress got to whittle it down.  This somehow smells more like pork for the suburbs of Chicago than a genuine effort to help get our housing market back off the ground.

Today's Florida Foreclosure News!

Here's what's in the news for Florida Foreclosures this week!

Florida Foreclosure News Beat for Tuesday, Thursday, September 08, 2011

Today's Florida Foreclosure News!

• Ruling in Wellington case could further complicate Florida foreclosures, September 8, 2011, By Kimberly Miller, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
• Foreclosures rise across South Florida, September 8, 2011, by South Florida Business Journal
• Orlando posts higher foreclosure rates, fewer delinquencies, September 8, 2011, Orlando Business Journal
• Q&A: Don't believe all you hear about mortgage modifications, September 8, 2011, by GARY M. SINGER, Sun Sentinel
• South Florida home prices nearly flat in July, September 8, 2011, by Oscar Pedro Musibay Reporter for South Florida Business Journal

Here's what's in the news for Florida Foreclosures this week!

Post earlier this month!

This is an important read for anyone seeking, or receiving help with their mortgage or foreclosure.

Attorney suspended for involvement with nonlawyers in loan modification business

This is an article from the Florida Bar News August 15, 2011 issue, about an Attorney who's licenses got suspended because he was working with non-lawyers who were providing loan modification assistance.  This is in violation of Florida Statutes § 501.1377, the Foreclosure Rescue Act.  Long story short, this group of non-lawyers, foreclosure-rescue consultants were taking money from homeowners to the tune of $1,500 to $3,000 through this attorney's office in violation of the law.  

According to the underlying petition and this article, this attorney, William Timothy O-Toole of Summit Legal Group, admitted to, among other things, the following:

So it appears that he simply let this group of non-lawyers use his name and license for a cut of the fees and really did not do much if anything else for the clients. 

The petition and article also state that the non-lawyers were soliciting potential clients with promises of rate reductions or other results.  Anytime a non-lawyer contacts you about your specific situation, especially in an unsolicited phone call, should be a big red flag. 

Be wary of these foreclosure rescue scams in sheep's clothing.