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A Day in Court Defending A Foreclosure

Thu Jan 22, 2009 by on Florida Law News

OK… so I go to court on Tuesday morning for what is called motion calendar. That is where you get maybe unto 5 minutes of face time with the Judge. We were there to move to dismiss a foreclosure for numerous procedural or due process grounds: including the fact that the note was lost and then assigned without recorded proof in the public records of an assignment of mortgage as well as other more technical grounds.

The other attorney had about 15 files stacked so high they partially obscured his face. He was a “Rent-A-Counsel” since the foreclosure was prepared on the other coast of Florida by a Foreclosure Mill. After hearing our argument, the judge read the motion and then decided to defer a ruling by putting the matter on a “special set calendar” in several weeks. The other counsel was silent since he was not knowledgeable about our case nor had he read our motion.

Interestingly, I suggested to the judge that it was likely that the other 14 files had similar problems and that some judges in other parts of the country have begun to look at actual paperwork being thrown together by the banks as part of their “foreclosure filings.” I asked the judge what he thought of that… and he commented in a tone that was partially sarcastic that it was not his role to look at each file if a party chooses to be unrepresented… but that “I should or could represent all these people!” I inquired why some judges elsewhere were taking it upon themselves to look at each file while in Florida the judges were not doing that. Now… getting annoyed he asked why he was even having this philosophical discussion with me and quickly whisked me out of his courtroom.

The good news though is that my client now gets to continue living in his home for another few months!

Tags: florida foreclosure, lost note