Foreclosure Crisis: Fed-up Judges Crack Down On Disorder In The Courts

palmbeachpost.com:

Angry and exasperated by faulty foreclosure documents, judges throughout Florida are hitting back by increasingly dismissing cases and boldly accusing lawyers of "fraud upon the court."

Read the whole story: palmbeachpost.com

Comments

[OneHeart]

08:06 PM on 04/03/2011

Until I see criminal charges (that stick) will I start believing that justice is being served. The DOJ and the Obama administration has done little or said little about criminalizing these financial lenders. America and their protected rich has become so greedy.

[russlibertarian]

07:59 PM on 04/03/2011

I'm so happy that people can now take a loan and never pay it back. Makes my deposit in the bank that much more safe. I'm not one of those people brainwashed by Teh Corporations!!11 who think that banks need to get their money back or else they can't pay interest on deposits. I know that the interest my bank pays me for my savings account is produced directly by tree hugging and graduating from sensitivity classes.

[lbc-clb]

07:20 PM on 04/03/2011

If the Tea Party were real, they'd be jumping all over these banks and mortgage companies! But, we know they're powered by big business and Wall Street so, they not going to say a word about all the crap that been going on in the housing market, are they?

[whitemale08]

06:21 PM on 04/03/2011

Finally a trickle of justice.

[grandma58]

05:32 PM on 04/03/2011

NIce, very very nice!

[GaryNOVA]

05:20 PM on 04/03/2011

Ok this is a good thing but the fact that they are "cracking down" raises another question. What were they doing before ??? "cracking down" suggests that they altered their way of doing things. Shouldn't judges be consistently making rulings based on an objective interpretation of law ALL THE TIME?

I don't think I'm being too unreasonable.

[eyecon]

04:59 PM on 04/03/2011

It had to come to this? We are so dekcuf!

[2tango]

04:27 PM on 04/03/2011

Florida is a collusion state.

[altohone]

04:06 PM on 04/03/2011

It's not 'fraud' it's fraud.

Those boasting about having the money to avoid the predatory lenders are just clearly better people.

[MilesToGo]

02:46 PM on 04/03/2011

We might hope this represents a trend that could spread beyond Florida, and begin some substantive policy changes to the way the housing crisis is being handled. Haven't the banks stolen enough from America? But any reality check will show the judicial system is well-rigged in favor of the banks, which hold in many respects more power than our political vassals in Washington.

[KaAp]

02:16 PM on 04/03/2011

If more judges would do this we could ameliorate many of the problems in housing ... it would be lovely. And, tell the banks who have ripped off this nation for far to long to stuff it. Oh, how I would like to see that.

[cardholder]

02:09 PM on 04/03/2011

Question: Wouldn't it be great if the courts brought in retired bank auditors and tellers to scrutinize the paperwork to verify that it is in order. It could be done on a "community volunteer"basis. This would be better for the homeowner, who is broke and can't afford an attorney to defend their cases. I hadn't thought before about the huge numbers of undefended foreclosures. We've read about the numbers clogging the courts' dockets and slowing down the process, but how could a homeowner, that is being tossed out onto the street afford the extra expense of an attorney for an indefinite period of time. The retired or volunteer auditors and tellers are used to assessing the paperwork's validity in specific jurisdictions and would provide a very valuable service to their neighbors and neighborhoods.

The courts in California use trained Arbitration specialists to handle some cases. The bank auditors and tellers are already "trained specialists".

Meanwhile, I am greatly cheered that judges are awarding homeowners free and clear possession of their homes when they find fraud. Rah, Rah, Rah, for the judges!!

[pcflamingo]

03:17 PM on 04/03/2011

I'm not sure how a bank teller would be a "trained specialist" on mortgage documents. Loan underwriters, loan closers, loan servicing personnel - those who know what actual loan closing documents should properly look like - I can see using them to review files. Tellers, not so much.

[gypsy508]

01:18 PM on 04/03/2011

I just learned why Wells Fargo executives got their big compensation package last year:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/03/us-bank-mexico-drug-gangs

[OldTulsan]

01:53 PM on 04/03/2011

Over 20,000 deaths and NO prison time...

http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=asU.b_fCjHTE
Wachovia's Drug Habit - Bloomberg.com

"...The bank didn’t react quickly enough to the prosecutors’ requests and failed to hire enough investigators, the U.S. Treasury Department said in March. After a 22-month investigation, the Justice Department on March 12 charged Wachovia with violating the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to run an effective anti-money-laundering program.

Five days later, Wells Fargo promised in a Miami federal courtroom to revamp its detection systems. Wachovia’s new owner paid $160 million in fines and penalties, less than 2 percent of its $12.3 billion profit in 2009.

[snip]

‘No Capacity to Regulate’

Large banks are protected from indictments by a variant of the too-big-to-fail theory.

Indicting a big bank could trigger a mad dash by investors to dump shares and cause panic in financial markets, says Jack Blum, a U.S. Senate investigator for 14 years and a consultant to international banks and brokerage firms on money laundering.

The theory is like a get-out-of-jail-free card for big banks, Blum says.

“There’s no capacity to regulate or punish them because they’re too big to be threatened with failure,” Blum says. “They seem to be willing to do anything that improves their bottom line, until they’re caught...”

The financial markets need to have panic for fear of going to prison.

[SOTM]

02:01 PM on 04/03/2011

It seems these banks need the illegal drug trade to maintain profit levels. I am sure the Private prison industry works hand in hand with these banks to ensure the "war on drugs" continues down the path of profitability.

"its always about the dollars"

[asiclilpup]

01:14 PM on 04/03/2011

Since the legislative / political system couldn't do the correct thing, then I'm glad to see the judicial system cleaning things up,but of course soon the right winger judges will enter the fray and muck things up even more.

[Sepulchre]

01:35 PM on 04/03/2011

Well they believe coporations should have free reign to do anything they like. Fraud, out right theft, let workers dle because of not following those evll regulations, et. They think they should never be punished or a harsh word even said about them for any of it.

[Sepulchre]

01:11 PM on 04/03/2011

Banks are only interested in money. The best way to force them to stop fraudulent behavior is to hit them in the only place it hurts, their profit margin. Perhaps if they get a few more judgments like this they will reform their behavior rather than lose money.