Bravo to Joe Nocera who writes the Talking Business column for The New York Times each Saturday. Today’s story Big Problem with Banks: Due Process is right on target according to Roy Oppenheim, foreclosure defense attorney with Oppenheim Law
Here is an excerpt:
It is absolutely true that the homeowners that Bank of America wants to foreclose on are in default on loans they should never have gotten in the first place. (Gee, whose fault was that?) But it simply does not follow that the bank therefore has an absolute right to take back the home. Under the law, it has to prove it has that right — by filing documents that show that the owner of the mortgage has conveyed that right to it. That’s why this affidavit scandal isn’t some legal nicety. It’s about the single most important value of American jurisprudence: due process.
“Just because the homeowner hasn’t paid his mortgage doesn’t mean anybody in the world can kick him out,” said Katherine Porter, a visiting law professor at Harvard. “The bank has to have the standing to do that.” She added that the bank’s argument was a little like saying that someone who committed a crime shouldn’t receive a trial because he’s so obviously guilty. America just isn’t supposed to work that way.
Real estate law is moving at the speed of light and the playing field is changing when it comes to banks and foreclosure fraud. Oppenheim shares his views on the Oppenheim Law video channel discussing how, up until now, most members of the judiciary were not taking homeowners seriously and the playing field is changing. He shares a quick overview on what has been happening in the last few weeks concerning the Florida foreclosure fraud crisis.
Tags: bank fraud, Florida, Florida foreclosures, Roy Oppenheim
[...] the Florida homeowner about their constitutional rights and avoid being a victim of the recent foreclosure bank fraud crisis. As reported in headline news: rocket dockets, robo-signers and an overly aggressive judiciary [...]