South Florida voted, and Oppenheim Law’s South Florida Law Blog came out on top in the category of Best Business and Technology Blog in the 2nd Annual Sun-Sentinel Best of Blogs Awards.

Discussing topics like Florida foreclosure defense, homeowners’ rights, real estate tips and trends, and the economy, Oppenheim Law’s foreclosure defense attorneys interpret the latest news and translate what it all means to today’s homeowner.

Recent headlines include fresh topics like “Deficiency Judgments Haunting Return, Jason Lives Once Again,” “Budgetary Hardball Almost Forces Court Closures: Courts’ Reliance On Foreclosure Fees Exposed” and “Foreclosure Auctions are not eBay or Child’s Play. Novice Investors Beware!”

Over the past year, The South Florida Law Blog has broken down issues like South Florida home sales, national mortgage fraud, America’s job markets, and all the developments in foreclosure defense and short sales to help homeowners take advantage of these trends in areas the banks and the government clearly cannot.

“Homeowners need to be aware of how all of these trends can impact their greatest investment,” Oppenheim said. “We look forward to continuing to provide legal insight and practical analysis into these topics that greatly affect South Florida.”

Oppenheim Law is one of the leading Florida real estate and foreclosure defense law firms, founded in 1989. The firm has a 9.6 out of 10 rating from AVVO, the world’s largest legal directory, as well as the highest rating (A-V) conferred by Martindale Hubbell Law Directory, the most respected directory of lawyers and law firms in the U.S.

Who would ever have thought that the most respected names on Wall Street would cheat the house by playing with a marked deck?

Dear Wall Street: We’re not in Vegas anymore! The Sin City “players” of Wall Street might be trading in the fancy hotel rooms for prison cells.

The SEC is now following the Federal Reserve and the Senate is chastising Wall Street for effectively causing the economic crisis. The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that they too will be joining the bandwagon and fining the major banks on Wall Street for fraudulently causing the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression. They follow on the heels of the Federal Reserve and the United States Senate in lambasting the “banksters”.

Nearly 2

The government official who recently left office over the housing crisis is someone who actually fought for the people instead of laying the groundwork for a cushy job awaiting him in the private sector. Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General for TARP resigned his post effective Wednesday, March 30. On his way out the door, he was still publicly arguing with the Treasury over the legacy of the $700 billion dollar Troubled Asset Relief Program (“TARP”).

Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com called Barofsky “easily one of the most impressive and courageous political officials in Washington” for his willingness to stand up to some of the most powerful people, institutions, and special interest lobbies in Washington and Wall Street.

On March 29, before his departure from office, he wrote a piece for the New York Times titled “Where the Bailout Went Wrong.” The piece, so vicious in its criticisms of the TARP program and politicians in Washington, prompted the Wall Street Journal to run excerpts from it along with their own commentary on the TARP fiasco.

Of the failed bailout Barofsky wrote:
“Two and a half years ago, Congress passed the legislation that bailed out the country’s banks. The government has declared its mission accomplished, calling the program remarkably effective ‘by any objective measure.’ On my last day as the special inspector general of the bailout program, I regret to say that I strongly disagree . . . Almost immediately [after passage], as permitted by the broad language of the act, Treasury’s plan for TARP shifted from the purchase of mortgages [that would have helped everyday homeowners] to the infusion of hundreds of billions of dollars into the nation’s largest financial institutions, a shift that came with the express promise that it would restore lending.”

Free money to banks, “free for all” (except homeowners)
The Treasury, however, provided the money to banks with no effective policy or effort to compel the extension of credit. There were no strings attached: no requirement or even incentive to increase lending to home buyers, and against our strong recommendation, not even a request that banks report how they used TARP funds.

Barofsky concluded with the following:
“[The] Treasury’s mismanagement of TARP and its disregard for TARP’s Main Street goals – whether born of incompetence, timidity in the face of a crisis or a mindset too closely aligned with the banks it was supposed to rein in – may have so damaged the credibility of the government as a whole that future policy makers may be politically unable to take the necessary steps to save the system the next time a crisis arises. This avoidable political reality might just be TARP’s most lasting, and unfortunate, legacy.”

Crash, burn, what next?
These failings of the Treasury have also resulted in larger banks that control a larger portion of our economy. This asks the question, why should the banks do anything different the next time around? In exchange for almost crashing the entire world economy, they come out larger, richer, and virtually guaranteed of future bailouts if governments want to avoid economic depression. Indeed, according to Barofsky, credit rating agencies are now taking into account the likelihood of future bailouts when determining the financial health of a company.

We salute Neil Barofsky and wish a great public servant the very best.

From The Trenches
Roy Oppenheim

PS: I’m flattered to be nominated in three categories for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s Best of Blog Awards this year! If you like the South Florida Law blog or our Twitter feed @OpLaw, please take a minute and vote! You can vote for each category once per day. Thanks!

For five years I’ve discussed the inevitability of Black Swan events that change everything overnight – game changers. Certainly, the earthquake in Japan and the subsequent rash of Tsunamis are reminders of that phenomenon as is the ongoing escalated strife and instability in the Middle East.

Not only have oil prices shot up, we now face a whole new set of issues and concerns from the devastation and dislocation in Japan caused by the sudden earthquake. Further, we will have to remain on edge for the next several weeks as aftershocks are felt in the Pacific Rim and the specter of additional quakes loom throughout the world. The Haiti and Chilean quakes were about a month apart last year, and quakes in Australia and New Zealand preceded this massive quake in Japan.

So you may ask, why is this relevant to me, my home and real estate prices? The answer is simple. In Japan, for example, some areas will have so declined in value that the properties may be close to worthless for years, while other areas spared the devastation may over-night double in value.

In the U.S. where certain communities have an excess supply of homes, I have always considered that part of our nation’s resources: an ark so to speak. God forbid, if America was to suffer the kind of devastation we are seeing in Japan, we will have the ability to move thousands of people quickly into homes that are vacant or abandoned. In fact, the latest estimates suggest 11% of all homes in the U.S. are currently vacant.

As a result, we have the ability to relocate displaced families from all over the world and serve as an international ark whereby we not only save displaced families’ lives but also help preserve entire neighborhoods from devastation, not of earthquakes, but of neglect and blight. We must as a nation think outside the box and dig deep into our own history and culture as we try to determine our Nation’s role in an ever changing world — a world that we will clearly have less control over than in prior decades.

From the Trenches

Roy Oppenheim

by Ellen Pilelsky – From the Heart

There is something so deeply wrong and disturbing with the current foreclosure crisis.

Simply: While most of us have some opinion as to the foreclosure mess, many don’t seem to care about the incredible amount of fraud that has occurred and continues to take place each day.

Some argue that people who fail to pay their mortgages, regardless of their reasons, are “deadbeats.” But, what about the fact some of the largest and wealthiest banks are missing documents used to remove people from their homes? And, in our “rocket docket” State of Florida, there are retired judges who are merely rubber stamping the foreclosure papers filed by the lenders’ firms without actually reviewing the merits of each case?

In Matt Taibbi’s rather eye opening and disturbing article Courts Helping Banks Screw Over Homeowners appearing in Rolling Stone Magazine November 10 issue, he recounts a day of going to a Jacksonville court and experiencing first hand the outrageous and flagrant rubber stamping of cases without judicial review.

Shouldn’t it matter that many of these cases result in people being forced to leave their homes when the very banks in question can’t even produce the documents needed to prove their case? Isn’t it a bit odd that these wealthy banks are not being subject to the same level of scrutiny?

Or is this politics as usual? After all, many of these banks sold the mortgages of people to “investors” –other banks or trusts. And, many of those trusts do not have the documentation to prove they have the original documents. Wall Street, in fact, was part of this process and made huge sums of money.

And, what about the fact that banks have broken into homes that are in foreclosure? Where is the punishment called breaking and entering?

While each of us has a responsibility to pay our debts, there has to be some accountability by the banks for creating an environment where many people borrowed too much and where they themselves have not responsibly acted. Ironically, our government spent billions to bail out the banks who, for the most part, have acted without impunity in this foreclosure nightmare.

Will the government bail out the homeowner? Or will the massive fraud that is now being exposed, and yet used everyday in court, continue to be ignored?

From the Heart by Ellen Pilelsky

Picture this. In Florida: Retired judges being pulled out of retirement and paid to sit on foreclosure courts. Purpose: To decrease the amount of Florida’s foreclosure backlog.

Reality? The outcome of many cases is questionable, at best. Seems many of these judges, who may be well intentioned, are actually ruling in favor of the banks despite legitimate issues, such as the financial institution’s ownership of the note and mortgage.

Conflict of Interest? Retired judges are actually being compensated in order to decrease the foreclosure docket. Some argue that since these select judges have a financial interest in decreasing these cases, a homeowner’s constitutional rights may in fact be at jeopardy.

In fact, this past weekend, the New York Times reported injustices done to homeowners facing foreclosure through Florida’s recently created “foreclosure courts.” Simply put, questions are being raised as to whether the retired judges are ignoring problematic or contradictory evidence, especially since some banks have not yet even proven that they own the properties in question.

What next? The Attorney General’s office is investigating foreclosure firms that have submitted questionable ownership documents.

The true question is how did we get to this point? How could foreclosure decisions be rendered by courts where the ownership of the very documents upon which the suits are fashioned are suspect? Where is the consideration of the homeowner’s rights?

Perhaps an appeal of those cases incorrectly decided should be under way. More importantly, perhaps justice should actually be served.

Cooperation, Persistence, Patience, Sharing, and Positivity

This post is the third for Oppenheim Law’s senior partner, Ellen Pilelsky, as she discusses Florida real estate and foreclosure, sharing her perspective “From the Heart.” Oppenheim Law looks forward to your continued feedback and support for this new column.

It has been seven years since Fred Rogers, the star of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, has died. Although the series of his well-known Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood can now only be found online (in fact there was a contest for the best show), we can all learn from Fred Rogers.

In these turbulent times, it is actually refreshing to view one of Mister Rodgers’ episodes. It reminds us how critical our role is not only to our children but also to our community. Mister Rogers embodies the “old time” values when neighbors knew each other, cared for each other and made sure that our children learned how to positively deal with others.

Interestingly, Mister Rogers’ series still gives us a gentle yet firm reminder of how timeless skills such as cooperation, persistence, patience, sharing, and the ability to remain positive helps us in any situation and any time. Generations of children and adults were and are drawn to these old episodes because they embody how simple life really can be. Even when we are dragged into negativity from the economy, war, and rampant unemployment, there existed and can still exist a better way.

In fact, Mister Rogers provides us all with the “good” feeling that we have the ability to act and face our difficulties. His episodes support a young child’s self-confidence by focusing on moving past frustrations and inevitable failures. In fact, his earmark lines, “You’ve made this day a special day just by being you. You are the only person like you in this whole world. And people can like you just because you’re you,” give us hope that we can count on and overcome difficulty

What can we, as adults, take from this?

Even though we may be burdened with debt, face foreclosure, or have encountered some difficulties, we still must and will go on. Somewhere deep inside of us we all, like Mister Rogers, have the ability to cope, become resilient, treat ourselves and our neighbors with respect, and move forward.

From the heart,

Ellen Pilelsky, Esq.

The Silver Lining of this Foreclosure Crisis From the Heart

Thanks for your positive feedback on our new column. This post is the second for Oppenheim Law’s senior partner, Ellen Pilelsky, as she discusses Florida real estate and foreclosure, sharing her perspective “From the Heart.”

Some say there is a reason for everything and that we can control our own lives. Both of these thoughts come to mind when I watch Allstate’s recent “Our Stand” ad campaign.

I’ve now watched this short video a few times, and each time I am so moved that I felt compelled to share it with you. The video drives home the point that even through these difficult economic times, we all can and will make it through.

It’s up to us to deal with and rise from the challenges we face today.

There is hope. We all just need to look at our lives and make changes that need to be made. As long as we are able to recognize what is really the most important things in our life, like family and friends, then we can avoid getting bogged down with “all the other stuff.”

The Silver Lining

There has to be a true silver lining to this foreclosure crisis.

I believe that our children will learn from these challenging times to live on what they earn and not beyond their means. They will become our future leaders in just a few short years and they will bring that old fashioned American Ideal to Washington and to the State Capitals. Soon our governments will learn to do with less, but still provide the essential services we need. We all just have to believe.

Although families may have to double up at times, children will actually once again truly know their grandparents. We all will learn how to prepare a home cooked meal with more natural ingredients and eat out less. Families may decide to reacquaint themselves with the great outdoors and go camping instead of trekking to a pricey resort. And we will find true happiness or riches is not just a bank account but how fulfilled our lives are based on friends and the good deeds we have done for others. Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project is a good read and reminder of this.

Paying it Forward

I always taught my family the importance of “paying it forward” and believe now more than ever that lesson can provide much joy and happiness to the person paying it up front.

It is strange how in times like these we all need to understand we really do not need all that much. And if we can use our energy to be positive and move forward, then we will emerge stronger and wiser.

From the Heart,

Ellen Pilelsky

By Ellen Pilelsky

Many of you have been reading Attorney Roy Oppenheim’s “From the Trenches” series over the past year as he details his experiences as Florida foreclosure defense attorney. This post is the first for Oppenheim Law’s senior partner, Ellen Pilelsky, as she discusses Florida real estate and foreclosure, sharing her perspective “From the Heart.”

The Mortgage Bankers Association wants to know what folks in foreclosure should tell their kids.

I usually remain behind the blogging scenes, but this is my first attempt to share my views as a woman, mother and foreclosure defense attorney about how the world has changed and why we need to understand how to cope.

Last month John Courson, President of the Mortgage Bankers Association, said he had no idea what individuals were going to tell their children about why they stopped paying their mortgage. He suggested people who are in foreclosure are somehow immoral.

My response is simple:

1. Never be judgmental towards others, for then you too will be judged: and
2. Never, ever, throw stones when you yourself live in glass house.

The MBA arguably represents the very folks who brought us the current economic crisis. Perhaps worse than that, Mr. Courson has a less than stellar record himself of “doing the right thing,” as was well articulated by some of the subscribers to Oppenheim Law’s South Florida Law Blog.

The reality is we need to help our children understand that:

Wherever you move, or wherever we as a family move, we will always have a home. A house is just made of bricks and lumber, but the things that make it a home are the family and the memories we create together wherever we live.

If your kids are in middle school or older you can explain the economy is experiencing one of its biggest corrections in 80 years, something we all have never experienced in our lifetimes. Maybe some of their grandparents went through the Depression, but in fact, very few Americans truly can remember that experience personally

Thus, we are all going through something that they too will be able to tell their children about and even their grandchildren one day. There are lessons, like everything else, to learn from what has happened.

In the meantime let your children know you love them and that mistakes were made by many people: politicians, regulators, lobbyists, banks, investment banks, mortgage brokers, lawyers… and even us!

We all are not above reproach.

But in the end, the important thing is to learn from these mistakes as we all grow to be better people and create a better country.

From the Heart,

Ellen Pilelsky, Esq.