The answer lives right next door:  your neighbors.  Association fees, for homeowners and condo residents, go towards the infrastructure of your neighborhood or condominium and help to upkeep the amenities and common areas you and your neighbors enjoy.

And the benefit lives where you do too:  your credit score.  You may have to move out of your house, but your credit score is coming with you wherever you go.  Even in foreclosure, it is in the homeowner’s best interest to maintain the property—mow the grass, make repairs, and pay your association fees.  Not only does this help to upkeep the property value of the area, but it may help you with a short sale, which could help you avoid a foreclosure on your credit report.

Generally a judge will look more favorably on your foreclosure case if you show effort in trying to upkeep the property value.  Your good intent could count even if you cannot put your money where your mortgage is.

In Florida, you do not have to take a field sobriety test.  You will get arrested, but you do not have to give police all the funny footage of you doing stupid pet tricks on the side of the road.  Or you can do the field sobriety test and get arrested anyway.

If you are arrested for DUI, they can ask you to do a breathalyzer test.  If you refuse the breathalyzer, you lose your license for four to six months period if it is your first time.  The second time, it is a misdemeanor.

However, if there is an accident with injury, that gives law enforcement probable cause to take a blood sample from you.

A DUI charge means you probably got caught and there is evidence against you.  It is a conviction with fingerprinting and a criminal record…and the prosecutors of this area are very professional at doing their jobs.

The way to avoid a DUI charge is do not drink and drive.  However, if you are charged with DUI, do not make a bad situation worse by limiting your options.  Seek competent legal counsel.  A defense attorney can help you work with the prosecution on choices to get the best resolution possible.

So your credit card company sued you in small claims court.  A debt judgment is just a piece of paper; they may as well print it on two-ply for all it is good for if you have no money.  If there is nothing for them to collect from you, then there is nothing for them to collect.  Either you are collectible or you are not, EXCEPT the creditor is going to watch your accounts for the next 20 YEARS.  You may not always be broke.

So you filled out your Fact Information Sheet—how much money you do NOT make, how many cars you do NOT own, and the Renoir you do NOT have in your basement.

The creditor will go after cash first.  They do not have to liquidate cash—it is liquid.  If you have no cash, then they will look at other assets.  If you have no other assets, then they will wait, and they will wait and wait, and watch your bank account to see if anything changes.

The difference between exemptions and collections is about twenty years.  You only have a limited time to claim exemptions from judgment, but once a debt judgment is entered, creditors have TWENTY YEARS to COLLECT.  They can garnish your bank account without notice to you, freezing any good fortune you happen to come into.

The best way to avoid a debt judgment is not to go into debt.  Beyond that, examine what exemptions you may be eligible for AND CLAIM YOUR EXEMPTIONS as soon as possible.

Exemptions to collection judgments include:

1. Head of household at a certain income level

2. Social Security benefits

3. Pension

4. Disability

For general information on Small Claims Court, go to http://www.clk.co.st-johns.fl.us/family/forms/smallinfo.PDF.  To review your case and potential exemptions, seek competent legal counsel.  You do not need an appointment to pick up a pamphlet at Legal Aid (222 San Marco Avenue, St. Augustine) about collection exemptions and how to claim them.

There are ways to quit smoking that do not involve the justice system, finger printing, and a criminal record.  Generally if you are facing jail time or a fine, a defense attorney can help you work with prosecutors for the best possible resolution, but if you are trying to quit smoking, save the expense of legal fees.  There is free online help at http://www.smokefree.gov/, as well as other resources.

HAMP is the Home Affordable Modification Program that modifies home loans for lower monthly payments.  As of June last year, the Federal Government expanded the program so that more homeowners would be eligible.  If your first look at HAMP turned you down, you may want to take a second look.

As on their website, HAMP eligibility now includes:

• Homeowners who are applying for a modification on a home that is not their primary residence, but the property is currently rented or the homeowner intends to rent it.
• Homeowners who previously did not qualify for HAMP because their debt-to-income ratio was 31% or lower.
• Homeowners who previously received a HAMP trial period plan, but defaulted in their trial payments.
• Homeowners who previously received a HAMP permanent modification, but defaulted in their payments, therefore losing good standing.

For more information about HAMP, go to http://www.makinghomeaffordable.gov.

“Show me the note!”  You say that in Clay County and they will show you the door.  The question of “Whose loan is it?”  is not as effective as a defense as it once was in some areas.

Some court procedures are easier than others and a foreclosure defense is not one of them.  Seek live legal counsel so you can ask and answer questions about your circumstances and what choices are available to you.  Even the good information online may not be applicable to your case.  Discuss it with a competent defense attorney.

Use the power of AND in your married relationship to spread risk to as many people as you can—like an insurance policy.  You are joined by AND (not OR), and that is important.  The Unity of Marriage subscribes to the legal fiction that husband and wife are one entity.

If you get divorced later, you can divide the assets then, but while you are married, use the power of AND as Tenants by Entirety to secure your financial life.

The problem is no person on the planet has authority to negotiate.   The loan servicer is supposed to send a representative with full signing power, but with mortgage-backed securities, the loan ownership is so ambiguous that there is no one who can make decisions beyond HAMP (Home Affordable Modification Program).  Bigfoot’s autograph has more signing power than the loan servicer’s representative.

Furthermore, the homeowner is entitled to HAMP anyway.  Homeowners should not have to spend their time and money (half of the mediation fee) on foreclosure mediation when they are already entitled to the result.

Not much of a negotiation if there is only one outcome, and even less value for the homeowner if has to pay for what he was already entitled to.

There was a case in Wisconsin that involved a traffic accident, but no injury.  The driver refused a breathalyzer test, so they strapped him down and got a blood sample.  The driver subsequently moved to suppress that blood evidence because the police did not have probable cause, and the court granted the suppression of evidence.  Then the State appealed and lost.

It is good to know the Fourth Amendment is alive and well in the US!

When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping.  You might not want to start at the bankruptcy boutique.  Bankruptcy is a very limited solution both now and for your future.  Instead, you may want to try the refinance retail, the loan modification mall, or the short sale store before you try on a bankruptcy ball gown that you will have to wear for many seasons.  Seek an outcome that will de-emphasize credit loss.

A defense attorney can help you bargain hunt for the foreclosure solution that brings the best benefit to you the fastest.