I’m not a reader of tea leaves, so I am not about to guess how the Florida Supreme Court will ultimately rule on Roman Pino vs. The Bank of New York.

But listening to the justices attack Amanda Lundergan, Roman Pino’s attorney, while seemingly going much easier on Bruce Rogow, the bank’s very well-respected lawyer, was at best, discouraging.

It’s common for the justices to try to poke holes in an attorney’s case, and it does not always mean that you can predict what their decision will be.

But with the thousands surely watching Thursday’s hearing, I was hoping the Court would have been a little more sensitive to the perception that they were most certainly creating, that the banks already have this one in the bag.

As a whole I found the Supreme Court judges flippant to the obvious fraud that Bank of New York has brought before the court in this case.

And for the Court to downplay the importance of that fraud, and what it means to the integrity of the judicial system, was offensive.

If you were an average homeowner watching yesterday’s hearing, I am pretty sure you came away with a feeling that the playing field is not level, and there are two different sets of rules for the banks and for the rest of us.

That is truly unfortunate.

The Supreme Court has to be above the fray, and they must not abdicate their responsibility to police their own system.

Which is exactly what would happen if the Court allows the phony documents, the fraudulent backdating, the bogus notes and assignments to be brought before them without penalty.

They would be inviting any plaintiff to bring whatever kind of garbage into the courthouse they choose, because if they get caught, all they have to do is withdraw!

The right to withdraw a case should not be used as a shield to protect yourself when you engage in illegal conduct. It’s the Court’s duty to sanction that conduct and hold the parties accountable, whether it be the banks, the attorneys, even another judge.

And that’s what Roman Pino vs Bank of New York is really about. It’s not about the harm done to Mr. Pino, or whether or not he’s ‘getting a free house’.

It is not OK to just hit the reset button whenever it suits the banks to do so.

The banks are terrified they might actually be held accountable for their actions!

If you haven’t already heard, there is a monumental case that was heard Thursday morning in the Florida Supreme Court, and every single homeowner should be paying close attention to this case.

To watch a replay of the oral arguments, please click here.

The case is Roman Pino vs. Bank of New York. It involves all the customary fraud I have seen in countless cases.

Missing documents, fraudulent assignments, fraudulents notaries, and forged documents, and a bank once again trying to shuffle it’s dirty deeds under the rug like loose dirt.

When Bank of New York first tried to foreclose on Pino, a regular working guy from Greenacres who fell behind on his mortgage when his business dried up, there was no assignment of mortgage.

So Bank Of New York’s lawyers tried to re-file with a new assignment, one which was fraudulently backdated (AKA robosigned).

The bank’s original lawyers, by the way, were from David J. Stern’s office. You know their story.

When our good friend and colleague Tom Ice, Pino’s lawyer, challenged the documents, Bank of New York suddenly decided they didn’t want to foreclosure anymore, dropped their lawsuit and scurried back into their hole.

End of the story??

Not even close. Ice continued to dog Bank of New York like a pitbull, because he, believe it or not, also thinks the banks need to actually be held accountable! (Remarkable I know.)

He tried to have the voluntary dismissal overturned, so that Bank of New York could face sanctions for the forged documents they tried to use to swindle Roman Pino and the court.

Like countless others banks, Bank of New York got their hand caught in the cookie jar. But now they are trying to remove their hand before it slams on them.

While the lower courts have sided with the bank and refused to overturn the dismissal, the 4th District Court of Appeal has asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on a question of “great legal importance, which in their own words, “has the potential to impact the mortgage foreclosure crisis”, since “many, many mortgage foreclosures appear tainted with suspect documents.”

The question is whether banks can avoid punishment simply by dropping a foreclosure lawsuit.

So now you know why this case, and the legal implications it carries, has the entire banking industry shaking in their ratskin boots.

Even though Pino has already settled with Bank of New York, and ‘remarkably’ got to keep his home, the effect this decision will have will go far beyond Roman Pino.

It could finally mean justice for homeowners throughout the state of Florida.

The Mortgage Bankers Association and the Florida Bankers Association have filed a brief with the court, as have the American Land Title Association and the Florida Land Title Association.

Guess who they are backing?

All of these organizations are asking the Court to rule in Bank of New York’s favor, so they can continue the status quo.

The banks are playing a shell game, trying to get the Court to overlook the obvious frauds committed by Bank of New York, all in the name of a “potentially devastating” economic effect a judgement against Bank of New York might have.

In their brief the Bankers Associations claim that banks will write less home loans if they can’t dismiss and then re-file a foreclosure.

Is that a threat?

What they are really saying is ‘Just let us keep doing what we’ve been doing, and let’s forget all about the rules of law.”

The housing market will be just fine. This is a scare tactic on the part of the banks, so please don’t be fooled. They are just worried their con-game will come to an end.

What the Pino case is really about is the court protecting the integrity of the judicial system and protecting the constitution. It is imperative for court to rule against Bank of New York to keep its own integrity above repute.

It’s unfathomable that a bank could simply avoid punishment for a crime that would land you or me in jail just because they decided to drop their lawsuit.

Bank of New York is arguing the case should be left alone, because engaging in fraud is not reason enough to overturn the dismissal.

If the justices dismiss this case, banks will be able to walk away from their transgressions whenever they choose. It’s not only inappropriate, but outrageous.

Roman Pino vs Bank of New York goes to the heart of protecting our constitutional democracy, and it’s critical that the Florida Supreme Court reign in the illegal conduct and behavior of the banks, because as Ice wrote in his brief, the court should not “draw a line that protects wrongdoers and blesses fraud upon the court.”

If the justices side with the banks they will be encouraging continued falsehoods, their impartiality will be implicated, and a form a anarchy that will ultimately lead to total disrespect for our constitutional principles will be unleashed.

From The Trenches,

Roy Oppenheim

A group from the Miami Workers Center clean up the area around an abandoned bank-owned house, as police officers wait nearby (Photo Courtesy:Miami Workers Group)

It never ceases to amaze me the glaring duality of the world I live in.

I am constantly reminded that we live in world where you and I have to play by one set of rules, yet the vast financial complex that resides on Wall Street isn’t held to even a fraction of those standards.

The latest example comes way of a small protest in Liberty City last week.

A few members of the Miami Workers Center, a grassroots organization, arrived at an abandoned foreclosed home, a property that like countless others is nothing more than a glorified trash dump.

Their nefarious plot? To clean the home up, and try to make it a little less of an eyesore.

Scary right?

And what did this group, which included a grandmother and an pregnant woman, encounter when they arrived at that home?

About a half dozen cops, who threatened to arrest any of them if they stepped foot on the Bank Of America-owned property.

The protesters, to their credit, didn’t give up and cleaned up the public areas around the home. Not once was a burglary tool spotted.

The officers watched over these men and women like mother hens as they picked up beer bottles and broken glass, among other fabulous ‘accessories’ the home had accumulated over the last few years. (Bank of America took the home in 2010.)

But when the banks not only trespass, but break into my clients homes? How many police officers can I get on the case? Not a single one.

Even after the banks burglarize a home, when I have proof of a crime that would land you or I in jail, I am told it’s a civil matter, if I even get that.

Usually all I am left with is a big shrug. Banks can change locks or even tear a house apart, yet when a few ladies decide to pick up trash and try to better a neighborhood, that’s when the cops decide to enforce the laws?

Why do the property rights of banks, banks that simply do not care about their neighbors, mean more to the police than that of good citizens?

As Newsweek joined the voices wondering if in fact the banks are too big to jail, I ask you, how can we put them behind bars if we can’t even get an officer to respond?

Bankers have access and influence that just hasn’t been broken, even by a President who promised hope and change.

Newsweek points out that when it comes to justice in the financial sector, President Obama has not lived up to the hype.

Now he’s been busy when it comes to civil rights or health-care fraud, but when it comes to financial fraud the feds just can’t be bothered.

Prosecutions of financial crimes are at 20 years lows, and they’ve dropped nearly 40 percent since 2003.

Once again, it comes down to two sets of rules. Bankers get to pick and choose which rules they play by, but citizens trying to do some good don’t get that luxury.

From The Trenches,

Roy Oppenheim

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is now asking for the public’s input on what she should do with the $300 million the state will be receiving directly from the national mortgage settlement.

She is openly soliciting your suggestions through her website from now until May 14th. As a foreclosure defense attorney and one of the people on the front lines of the housing crisis, I have more than a few ideas.

So Pam, please consider this my open letter to you and your office.

First and foremost, here is what you should NOT do with the money. Don’t throw it at principal reduction. It will have virtually no impact on Florida’s communities, it would be like throwing the money into quicksand.

So far, Florida’s efforts to offer financial relief to homeowners have just fallen flat.

Florida’s Hardest Hit program just hasn’t worked, and even recent changes to the program’s requirements will not help it reach enough people.

Move The Banks Out of Your Cities

What you need to do Ms. Bondi, is use the money to make systemic changes to Florida’s housing market.

First, give the money to your towns and cities to clear out Florida’s foreclosure blight. Blight caused by the abundance of abandoned homes the banks own, but refuse to take care of.

I’ve long told my readers that banks are bad neighbors, and the Sun-Sentinel now has the numbers that make my case.

Ms. Bondi, despite what your boss says, banks are the problem and you need to get them out of your cities and towns. Give your local governments the ammo to do it.

Your local cities are already going after the banks to try to force them to maintain their homes, as any property owner SHOULD do, but liens and fines mean nothing to these “Too Big To Fail” banks.

So give the money to local Florida municipalities so they can condemn and demolish these eyesores. Then let the cities buy these properties from the banks at their ‘true value’ and auction them off. Let new homes be built.

This will stabilize Florida’s neighborhoods and the real estate market, and in the end reduce suburban blight.

Take Back Your Property Records

Next, support your local clerks by giving them some of the money to support their investigations into MERS. Banks have violated the rules of real estate ownership with this fraudulent record keeping system and thankfully a few clerks, both in Florida and across the country have taken action by filing lawsuits against MERS.

This is the type of action you need to be encouraging and funding. MERS has destroyed our recordation system and turned what once was one of America’s strongest selling points and turned it into a laughing stock.

Our ability to control property ownership records used to be protected by our government, but over the last few years records have been bastardized and suddenly we’re more concerned with protecting banks ownership interests instead of the rights of regular citizens.

The banks have lost control over their own mortgages and it’s time to give your clerks the ability to seize control of these records back from the banks.

Give All Your Constituents Access to Legal Counsel

Lastly, it’s important that anyone have the access to good legal advice when defending their home. Not everyone can afford to hire a foreclosure defense attorney, and when homeowners go without representation, the banks trample all over them.

There are not-for-profit legal counsels offering help to homeowners, but many are understaffed or undertrained. Pam you could help fund these centers with the foreclosure settlement money,

If needed, use the money to offer specialized training to their staffs, so they can offer the same legal advice I offer to my clients.

Homeowners need help in undoing the wholesale violation of their property and constitutional rights, rights which are the bedrock of this nation. They need these rights restored.

Finally if you have any funds left bring an anti-trust action yourself, on the grounds that the banks are too big, anti-competitive and have harmed the state.

From The Trenches,

Roy Oppenheim

What would he have said about the banks fraudulent acts?

Last weekend Chuck Coulson, the man once called Richard Nixon’s ‘hatchet man”, passed away at the age of 80.

Known both for his being one of the ‘Watergate Seven’ and his subsequent 2nd life as a born-again evangelist, I can only wonder what he thought of of our current foreclosure crisis.

I don’t know if he ever gave it much thought, but I suspect there would be a level of amazement.

Watergate, which started over a single break-in, landed almost 50 men in jail, including many top Nixon aides like Coulson.

The banks have broken into thousands of homes in their efforts to secure ‘abandoned properties’. Except you and I both know that most of these homes were anything but abandoned.

Sometimes they weren’t even in foreclosure. I’ve had about a dozen clients who’ve had their locks changed or had their homes ransacked by repo agents who were hired by the banks.

The banks, playing the role of Nixon and his cronies, have used aggressive tactics that Coulson, in his days as Nixon’s legal counsel, might have employed.

Coulson allegedly said he would walk over his own grandmother to get the president re-elected, which sounds appropriate because banks have done almost everything else in order to foreclose on homeowners who often didn’t deserve it.

Yet for crimes that would seem to fit in any file on Watergate, there is not a single banking executive who has been arrested.

I’ll bet good money Coulson would wonder why.

Coulson was convicted for his efforts in trying to discredit the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers, but what would he have said about the ‘hatchet job’ banks have done on homeowners?

False documents, forged signatures, tax fraud, all in the name of the mighty dollar. Coulson would likely have admitted that everything the banks have done since the bubble burst is 1,000 times worse than anything he and his cronies did.

There have been many great injustices throughout our nation’s history, and when the book is finally closed on this era of “Too Big To Fail”, I think the banks illegal foreclosures efforts and their bastardization of our legal system will clearly outweigh Watergate.

From The Trenches,

Roy Oppenheim

Judge Signs $25 Billion Foreclosure Settlement

It’s finally official. The so-called $25 billion foreclosure settlement has been signed off by a federal judge.

This comes after the settlement was filed in court last month. DC District Judge Rosemary Collyer did the honors Wednesday.

I won’t rehash my thoughts about what’s good and what’s bad about this settlement. Everything that needs to be said about it has been said.

You and I know that the banks will get more of a pass than they are entitled to for all of their robosigning shenanigans. In reality they are really only paying out about $5 billion in actual money, and I’ve still haven’t seen a single banking officer jailed.

Just remember this fight ain’t over yet!. This settlement was a necessary step, in order for the feds to move on to their investigation into securitized trusts.

THAT is where the banks will hopefully get what’s really coming to them.

Mortgage settlement oversight begins in North Carolina

Now that the settlement is official, the new government agency that will be watching the banks is now open for business.

North Carolina Banking Commissioner Joseph Smith is going to oversee the office and how the banks will receive “credits” towards the settlement for providing homeowners mortgage relief.

Relief, unfortunately, will often come in the form of transactions, such as short sales, that the banks were already doing before the settlement was announced.

“By itself, this settlement will not remedy every problem that system faces. But trust in our mortgage system can move forward if we use this opportunity to show fairness, transparency and accountability,” Smith said. “

Let’s hope!

“Dramatic” 65 percent increase in Palm Beach County foreclosures

Just as I predicted! Last month I told the Palm Beach Post that banks had been given the green light to prosecute new foreclosure cases, and lo and behold, that is exactly what has happened.

The Post now reports that Palm Beach County saw a 65.4 percent increase in new foreclosure filings last month, compared to March of 2011.

Palm Beach Clerk and Comptroller Sharon Bock called the jump “dramatic”. I call it completely expected. The settlement has given banks a road map on how to proceed.

But as I have already said, with the Clerk’s Office about to have their budget significantly reduced, you will see another logjam in the court system.

Without the necessary support staff, it will be nearly impossible for the courts to keep up with the banks.

Fed lays out rules for banks to rent REOs

Another idea I’ve long advocated is beginning to see the light of day.

The Federal Reserve has laid out the groundwork on how banks can rent out foreclosed homes. There is nothing to be gained by allowing homes to remain empty, so this is an absolutely necessary step if the housing market is going to recover.

Of course there are many landlord/tenant, state and federal housing regulations that will need to be followed, and we can’t trust the banks to be good landlords on their own.

In their report the Federal Reserve says that banks “should use a framework that appropriately records the organizations’ rental decisions and transactions as they take place”

Let’s just hope that those records are better than the ones the banks kept during the robosigning era.

HA!!

Have a great Passover and Easter Holiday!

Bill extends Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007

I warned you earlier this month that if you’re considering a short sale, the time to get the ball rolling is now.

That’s because the Mortgage Debt Relief Act, which was passed in 2007, is set to expire at the end of this year. If that happens you’ll have to pay taxes on any forgiven debt that comes out of a short sale.

I remain skeptical that Congress, in this election year, will come through and extend the MDRA, but at least some Congressmen haven’t forgotten how important this legislation is. Then again, in an election year anything is possible.

U.S. Reps. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and John Larson, D-Conn., have introduced the Homeowners Tax Fairness Act. It would extend the Mortgage Debt Relief Act for another three years.

Let’s hope Congress gets their act together and passes this bill.

NY Foreclosure Case Could Be A Game Changer

It remains to be seen if a foreclosure dismissal will have an impact here in Florida, but none the less it has the chance to be a real game changer.

The case is OneWest Bank, FSC vs Galli. OneWest had tried for a partial summary judgement against the Gallis, but the judge in the case denied it and instead ruled in favor of Mr. and Mrs. Galli.

As I’ve always said, you have to make the banks prove they own the note, but in reality it’s more than that. I could pick up a note off the street and say I owned it, but it wouldn’t necessarily be true.

But Judge John Maltese correctly pointed out that MERS (the illegal entity the big banks set up to subvert the recordation system of our country) had assigned this mortgage several times before OneWest even came into the picture, something the judge ruled MERS did not have the right to do.

By the judge’s own words, “How the plaintiff came into possession of the mortgages and notes in this case is suspect.”

We have rules in place for a reason, rules the banks constantly try to skirt, so thank you to Judge Maltese for not allowing it in this case.

How Quilting Can Explain The Foreclosure Crisis

I never thought I’d use the words quilting and foreclosure in the same sentence, but there’s a first time for everything right?

San Francisco artist Kathryn Clark once worked as an urban planner, and her response to seeing people losing their homes was to turn neighborhood maps into a quilt, with an empty spot representing a foreclosed home.

The result is simple, yet a haunting example of what foreclosure can do to a neighborhood.

Even if you’ve never had to face foreclosure up front, I doubt you can look at one of her quilts and not come away with an understanding of just how widespread the foreclosure crisis is.

Have a great weekend and we’ll see you soon in the trenches!

Homes need to be occupied.

That is the bottom line.

Today’s housing market needs a dramatic overhaul and it’s been long overdue for a fix. So we don’t have the time to be contemplating moral hazards anymore.

So I’m OK with President Obama extending mortgage assistance to owners of multiple homes.

According to Bloomberg, the administration will open up the Home Affordable Modification Plan, or HAMP, to these additional borrowers starting in May.

Borrowers who qualify for HAMP can have their monthly payments reduced through lower interest rates, longer mortgage terms and forgiven principal.

Landlords can apply for loan modifications for up to 4 mortgages as long as they rent out the homes or plan fill them, according to Bloomberg, who says about 700,000 landlords might qualify.

This has angered some, who are saying the administration is rewarding speculators who may have caused the housing market to collapse, and should focus solely on those who haven’t been able to pay their mortgages because of financial hardship. In a dream world, they would be right.

The problem with that notion is while speculators may have played a role in the housing market collapse, I still lay most of the blame squarely on the banks. You might say a so called ‘house flipper’ was only buying homes to pad their bottom line, to which I respond, what exactly do you the banks were interested in?

They were the ones engaging in rampant fraud, not the speculators.

I must again go back to this 60 Minutes piece about abandoned homes rotting their neighborhoods from the inside out. Banks response to these vacant properties has been to walk away from homes and allow them to go to waste.

If that is the alternative, then I will gladly welcome a house-flipper into my neighborhood.

They still make better neighbors than the banks.

Besides, there are renters out there who need to stay in their homes, and just like many borrowers, they too have hard-luck stories that rival if not surpass those of people who have lost their homes to foreclosure.

And not every multiple property owner is a speculator. Many are also just regular working Joes or people who were using the real estate market as a source of retirement income.

The housing market is in real trouble, and it won’t turn around unless we stop looking concerning ouselves with the theoretical construct of moral hazard and start paying attention to the bottom line.

After all who got bailed out just a few short years ago? It wasn’t the homeowners but rather the banks.

If the possibility that a ‘buy and flip’ investor might get mortgage relief is the chance this government has to take in order to keep renters in their homes and get the housing market turned around, than I say it’s a chance worth taking.

In my last blog I railed against the Florida Fair Foreclosure Act, which is making its way rapidly through the Florida Senate as the session winds down.

I said it’s being pushed by banking industry shills and should die a quick death.

So of course it was passed by the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee by a 6-4 vote and will now be headed to a full vote before the House and Senate.

Thanks guys! With friends like that…..

But after a moment of reflection and enlightenment, I have this to say to my friends in Tallahassee.

Bring it On!

That’s right! Pass the Bill.

My phones have not stopped ringing these days, as more and more clients are getting ready to lawyer up.

That’s right this bill will only increase the value I bring to my clients each and every day for without an attorney the Legislature will make sure that the “Florida Fair Foreclosure Act” is fair… for the banks … but not for you.

They will make sure that without counsel that you will be stripped of your right to defend your home. Without counsel the new law will ensure that you will go through a legal system that will resemble a steam roller.

It makes me laugh that the Legislature is entrusting the banks to not commit fraud once again. Because the honor system worked so well the last time.

But its sad that the Legislature is interfering with the independence of the judiciary by telling the courts what to do and how to do it.

Please, please try your best to pass the Florida Fair Foreclosure Act, because all you’ll be doing is making sure I’ll have a new stream of clients to defend, and more importantly be able to help the economy by hiring more people.

Unfortunately it just goes to further my point that the banks will try take advantage of homeowners every chance they get, and you still need representation to fight them.

The banks haven’t learned anything from the robosigning fiasco, and are still trying to find shortcuts. They will do whatever they can and grease any palm in order to make things easier for them.

And unfortunately, there are still plenty of politicians willing to offer one.

So once again to the politicians in Florida’s capital I say, pass the Florida Fair Foreclosure Act. You’re going to do it regardless of what I say.

But remember, I’ll be waiting for you, your enablers– the banks, and so will be my new clients!

Photo by The-Lane-Team

Banks need to get their massive foreclosure backlog off the books. There are over 368,000 cases in Florida. I get that.

Getting these properties into the hands of families who can afford them, that is what I want to see. It’s needed to jump start the economy, and no one wants to see the banks out of the neighborhoods more than me.

But it can’t be allowed to happen on the backs of other homeowners plain and simple. Lenders have tried to thrust these homes back onto the market before, and that’s why they just shelled out $25 billion.

The banks were penalized for being unethical, untrustworthy and fraudsters, and it doesn’t look like they have learned their lesson.

Yet a series of proposed bills now making their way through the Florida House and Senate offer banks unjust control over the foreclosure process, all in the name of getting abandoned homes back on the market.

The Senate version, which would create the “Florida Fair Foreclosure Act”, was passed by a judiciary committee earlier this week by a 5-2 vote. There is a similar bill making their way through the House.

But are they really ‘fair’ to homeowners? Absolutely not.

These bills are being pushed by banking industry shills. They make it easier for lenders to foreclose, and allows them to do so faster.

Have the politicians in Tallahassee learned nothing from the settlement? The $25 billion isn’t even in the mail, yet some are back to their old tricks, turning a blind eye to the plights of their constituents and denying them due process.

Sounds awfully familiar to me!

What these bills do is allow for more expedited foreclosures. Under the Fair Foreclosure Act, if the banks consider a property to be abandoned or if the homeowner does not respond within 20 days of being served, a judge has no choice but to rule for a final judgment of foreclosure right then and there.

A judge’s gavel would be nothing more than a rubber stamp, yet again.

The language of what constitutes an abandoned home is just too vague, and it is vague because the banks crafted it to be that way.

What are these criteria? If there is too much trash, if at least two neighbors say the home is abandoned, and if no one can be reached at the home at different hours of the day over a 72 hour period are among a few of them. And only two of them would need to be met for a home to be considered abandoned.

The people who help determine if homes meet those criteria, they all work for the banks, not the courts, not you. This bill offers the banks impunity with absolutely no oversight.

It’s a classic example of the fox watching the henhouse. If the banks present faulty ‘criteria’ that they developed, what chance do you have?

Even if your home is later ruled to have been fraudulently taken, your only recourse under this the Florida Fair Foreclosure Act would be monetary. You don’t get your house back, and the banks would be the winners, yet again!

Judges may not like seeing a logjam in their courts, but there is a reason a foreclosure takes a long time. It’s to prevent homeowners rights from being trampled.

Now the Florida Fair Foreclosure Act does have some provisions that are beneficial, namely that they would greatly reduce the amount of time that banks would have to recoup any unpaid mortgage debt, otherwise known as a deficiency.

Banks would have only one year, as opposed to the 5 they now have to seek a deficiency judgment.

That’s not worth the chance that even one homeowner might unfairly lose their house. Once again expediency is being promoted in exchange for fairness, dues process and constitutional rights.

Let’s hope the Florida Fair Foreclosure Act dies a quick death. I doubt it though.