First off– wow! What an amazing in depth report from the Center for Public Integrity. It is definitely worth the time to sit down and read this article. I will warn you, though, that unless you are a lender, this article may be very depressing. There is a silver lining to the black cloud that this article paints, however. Yes, there is no doubt that the Courts in South Florida are pushing foreclosure cases to “resolution” as fast as they can. But (and this is an important “but”) resolution can also work in favor of a homeowner- especially if your case has been languishing in the Court system. Why do is say that? In my experience, the older a case is, the better chances a homeowner has at trial! I get really excited when I have a trial scheduled for a case from 2010 or earlier. Foreclosure law in Florida has evolved and changed a lot in the last few years, making it much harder for lenders to prove their cases- especially when it comes to Standing at the Time of Inception– in layman’s terms, the operative question is “Did this Plaintiff (bank/lender) own the note and have the right to enforce it when they filed this lawsuit? Once this is raised as an Affirmative Defense in your lawsuit, this becomes a fact that the bank needs to prove at trial- and it isn’t easy to do that when the servicers and/or owners of loan have changed multiple times- often after the lawsuit has been initiated.
With that being said, the bank’s attorneys know much more than the average non-lawyer homeowner does about the system, and will take advantage of that with pro se (or unrepresented) defendants. There are usually 100-160 trials set in Broward County every day and the vast majority of them are either uncontested (the homeowner doesn’t hire an attorney and doesn’t show up for the trial) or settled (usually with the bank getting a judgment, agreeing to waive its deficiency claim and sometimes giving the homeowner some money to help with moving expenses). That usually leaves about 5-10 contested trials per day. Well, i have news for you, a lot of those contested trials end up as victories for the homeowners. I have had a good streak as of late with my cases that are 2010 and older– When i show up for trial, the bank dismisses the case rather than take it to trial. Why, because they know that there is an element of their case that they can’t prove. Further, they know that a good foreclosure defense attorney will know how to turn that into a win! I know that if my clients in those cases had decided not to hire me (or another competent attorney) the bank’s attorney would have probably convinced them to agree to a judgment.
I am always honest and up-front with my clients- if I don’t think that we have a good case for trial, I encourage them to settle the case. But when we have a good case, there is nothing better than the sweet smell of victory!
Center for Public Integrity takes on Florida Foreclsoures
Recent Comments