Banks, judges, and lawyers typically all work together to
get through as many foreclosure cases a day as they can. After all, the judges
get more filing fees for their court by handling a larger caseload, and lawyers
can bill all the hours they want to a bank that can create money out of thin
air. But even in such a scheme as this, the judges that may want to evaluate a
foreclosure case on its merits have to deal with deceptive lawyers.
But simply not being able to prove that it has the right to
collect on a loan does not stop the banks from filing lawsuits anyway. And the
threat of a lawsuit, any kind of lawsuit, is typically enough to scare most
borrowers into abandoning the home and moving out before eviction.
Another lie that the banks have their attorneys participate
in is undermining court-ordered mediation services. When courts mandate that
homeowners and lenders meet to discuss alternatives to foreclosure, the lawyers
are just stating that the borrowers "had 'no interest in the program or
declined,'" whether or not that is actually true. And it is often not
true, despite the bank's attempts at deception.
The news story details a long list of practices that
mortgage companies and lawyers representing those companies engage in to
deceive judges and foreclosure homeowners into unlawful foreclosures. The list
proves again that the courts are simply set up as formalities to "give
people their day in court," while sabotaging any effort they may make in
an actual defense of their home. A number of such legal frauds are listed
below:
Judges simply take foreclosure attorneys' at their word that
all of the paperwork is in order and sign off on judgments and orders for
sheriff sale or eviction. Bank lawyers file foreclosure lawsuits involving
properties in other counties that the courts have no jurisdiction over, thereby
taking advantage of a large caseload to get these fraudulent foreclosure
through an overworked system. Lawyers file lawsuits on behalf of banks without
documented proof the lender owns the mortgage or has the legal right to collect
on it. In many cases, the bank simply says the note has been lost but still
wants to go through with the foreclosure lawsuit. Judges comply.
Lenders ignore county rules mandating they meet with
borrowers to discuss solutions to foreclosure outside of the court system. Even
if homeowners want to participate in negotiations, lawyers file paperwork
stating the owners had no interest. No negotiations are ever held. Banks offer
to negotiate with borrowers and put the foreclosure process on hold during
negotiations -- but file the lawsuit anyway and obtain judgments and orders
against the homeowners, who were led to believe there would be no legal action.
The only really surprising aspect of the entire news article
is that the Herald Tribune seems to believe that these lies are "a new
tool in foreclosure." Unfortunately, these and similar fraudulent
practices have been going on for years now, long before the housing boom turned
into a bubble and then collapsed. The only difference now is that, with more
and more homeowners in foreclosure, there is more lying being done.
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