Fast-Track Foreclosure in Jax
NASA has due process. They go through thousands of steps before they evict an astronaut from his home atmosphere. Home foreclosure is not rocket science, but each step provides an important checkpoint for homeowner rights. The Rocket Docket is back in orbit around homeowner distress in Duval County. This foreclosure court spotlighted in Rolling Stone was criticized for lack of due process and was suspended for lack of funding. Now the budget has come back on-line and retired judges are on the bench again. The early part of this century saw a new dawn of the real estate bubble that rose to eclipse the sum of what many homeowners could afford. Lenders wrote mortgages for anyone who could breathe, and paperwork was done quickly and not necessarily correctly. The mortgage mills of the early 2000s led to foreclosure factories, like that of David Stern’s office. Banks have admitted to creating a whole bunch of bad assignments and Lenders forged documents to speed up foreclosures. Add that to a benchmark of retired judges mandated to keep things moving and the Rocket Docket may launch an assembly line of injustice. The advantage of the Rocket Docket is that it accelerates the process; [...] Read More
Cleaning Up Rental Relations
So your Landlord is taking you to the cleaners. They can do that in some cases and not give back your rental deposit, especially if you do not assert your rights. You have to pay to play. If you owe rent, you have to put that rent with the Registry of the Court, and then you can file a Notice to Dismiss. You cannot raise your defense unless you pay your rent. If I had to leave my place this morning, I would not get my cleaning deposit back. That is just because I have not had a chance to clean it. If you are harassed by the property manager to get out with no time to clean the place, you may have a legitimate legal complaint against your Landlord, beyond your simple right to quiet enjoyment of the property. Landlord / Tenant cases are never as easy as they should be. Things can get messy and sometimes it is more than the rental unit. Renters have rights. Landlords do too. Consult competent legal counsel if you have questions about your rights. A link to Florida’s Landlord-Tenant Law is available on the splash of this website. Read More
Foreclosure Dismissal – Did Not See It Coming
Generally you can see a foreclosure happening from a long way off. You have not made a payment in a while. You get phone calls and notices by mail from your lender. Then one day a man comes to your door to serve you with a foreclosure lawsuit. Usually that is not a big surprise to a homeowner. But a Foreclosure Defense can be a shock to a lender. Most Florida foreclosures go through our court system unopposed. That means there are a lot of new lawyers representing lenders on cases they expect to get rubber stamped through the process. It does not take a lot of experience to send a foreclosure prosecution through the legal procedure if no one is going to fight it. Most of the prosecutors do not appear in person—they are just phoning it in, literally. One such attorney recently made his telephonic appearance with a Motion for Summary Judgment dated 2009. Somebody’s house was at stake, but the lender’s attorney had not bothered to file an updated Motion. Judge, why are we here? Case dismissed. With a three-year-old Motion for Summary Judgment, a Foreclosure Defense attorney has to wonder what that case is doing in [...] Read More
Big Bad Wolf & Violation of Probation
Some people just cannot do probation. Some do not even make it out of the courthouse building before they are in violation. And for some, a series of bad decisions and bad circumstances can lead to a return to prison. Big Bad Wolf was no exception. The Big Bad Wolf had done time for harassing the Three Little Pigs and mugging Red Riding Hood’s grandmother, but he was on probation and out squirrel hunting with a BB gun. Despite his criminal record, the BB gun would have been fine, except Chicken Little saw him from a distance and reported a “very big wolf with a gun” to the police. The police went to Big Bad Wolf’s house, which would have been fine except when Big Bad realized the cops were there, he fled. The police caught him and asked him about the gun. Big Bad told them where the BB gun was behind his bedroom door, which would have been fine except the police tossed his bedroom while they were there. They found the BB gun just like he said, but they also found a bong and Acme ammo that his coyote cousin had left from his road runner safari. [...] Read More
Help Yourself to Better Credit
Credit is important. Your credit determines your purchasing power to buy items like a house, a car, a student loan. Bad credit can limit your ability to get more credit. Beware of credit repair services…they can be more expensive than legal. Creditors look at your bill-paying history, whether you pay your bills on time, collections actions against you, your outstanding debt, how many accounts you have and what kind they are, and if you have applied for new credit lately. They use this information to determine if you would be a good risk for repayment, or if you are a deadbeat. Creditors want their money back, and they want to make interest on the loan. A credit problem is a problem. And it is your problem to fix. Despite what a credit repair service claims it can do, no one can legally remove current, accurate negative information from your credit report. You may have poor credit. That does not mean you have to use poor judgment. Here are some credit repair scam symptoms: 1. Up-front fees before services are rendered 2. Lack of information regarding your rights and what you can do for yourself for free 3. Recommendation of no [...] Read More
Moving Parts
There are a lot of moving parts to a home foreclosure case—ten stages from the initial loan to the post-eviction, and that is just the legal procedure side. What is going on in your personal life adds a whole new dimension. People do not make their mortgage payments for many reasons—unemployment, medical hardship, loss of income—and no single resolution would work for every homeowner. Foreclosure Defense addresses the legal issues confronting your case, and gives you time to examine your personal and legal options, and time to pursue a strategy. A Foreclosure Defense helps you control the moving parts with informed decisions, so you can aim those moving parts towards the best benefit. It puts your side in play, instead of letting the lender move all the pieces. To influence the outcome, you have to play the game. Foreclosure Defense lets you explore the legal choices and target your plan of choice. Read More
Cross-Examine a ‘Free’ Trial
Litigation is often expensive. It is a lot of fun (for me), but generally there is no such thing as a ‘free’ trial. Sometimes that applies outside the courtroom as well. Consumers, cross-examine ‘free’ trials to make sure you are getting what you think you are getting. Remember: the BIG PRINT GIVETH and the small print taketh away. A free trial offer is a legitimate marketing technique whereby a consumer may be allowed to sample a product or service on a limited basis without obligation. A free trial lets you decide on the merit of the product or service instead of relying on the basis of advertising. However, some free trial offers come with a caveat that the offer is only free for a specified time, after which, if you fail to cancel the promotion, you could be obligated to pay. That is not necessarily bad because it makes it convenient for the consumer to continue receiving the product or service. But that might not be what you want. It is often less expensive for an attorney to explain a contract to you before you sign it rather than after you are suing the other party for what you thought [...] Read More
Luck & Bankruptcy
Won the Lottery lately? Had a rich relative recently pass a fortune to you? We cannot all live like Donald Trump. Some of us have to go broke for a living. And some wind up filing bankruptcy. Lucky for us there is no debtors’ prison in America. You may get way behind on your bills and owe a lot of people money, but you do not get locked up for that. Lucky for us, we have “Bankruptcy.” You would not take chemotherapy if you did not need it, and there are other ways of dealing with overwhelming debt, but if you have been bitten by the right snake, you file bankruptcy. Of course you can always represent yourself in court; however, having an attorney may be an advantage because of the complexity of bankruptcy law. An attorney can help you understand the process, your options, and your personal and financial considerations involved so you can make informed decisions. Bankruptcy is a big step with long-term consequences that you need to understand beforehand. Luck has very little to do with it, but good legal counsel could save you money. The US Courts offer general information on bankruptcy in a series of [...] Read More
Relative Terms – “Worst” “Better” “Best”
Foreclosure Defense is about loss mitigation. You are not going to get a free house, but you can work towards a best case scenario, one which helps your credit recover as fast as possible. You do not “win” a foreclosure case. Instead, you try to achieve an alternative outcome before the foreclosure can be completed. Thus the goal is to be better off with a legal defense than you would be if the foreclosure simply went through without fighting. Foreclosure Defense runs on a scale from “worst” to “better” to “best.” Your relative position along that range determines how fast your credit score recovers. Good legal counsel may be able to help you transform a “worst case scenario” into a “better case scenario.” Read More
Humpty Dumpty’s Home Foreclosure
Humpty Dumpty sat on bad credit. Humpty Dumpty had a great debit. And all the bank’s courses, and all the bank’s men could not put Humpty Dumpty’s loan back together again! A lot of nest eggs are cracked open by a foreclosure fall. Not everything goes back together the same way after a financial downfall. Foreclosure Defense may be able to help you hang onto as many pieces of your credit as you can. Humpty Dumpty probably needs a good personal injury attorney, but if your home equity is shattered, you may want to consider a short sale. Do not egg your credit with a foreclosure if you do not have to. Seek competent legal counsel to learn more about your alternatives to foreclosure. Read More