Last week was quite a week. I left Cambridge, MA, after visiting my daughter for the weekend and enjoying a little family rivalry at the Harvard – Princeton football game.

Roy Oppenheim on Randi Rhodes

After a meeting in New York, I found out the nationally syndicated Randi Rhodes Show wanted me to make an appearance at 5 p.m. to discuss foreclosures and Oppenheim Law’s defense strategies. They would not let me use my cell phone for the interview, so I was expecting to have to talk from a pay phone in the middle of LaGuardia before my flight back to South Florida. Luckily, I found a quiet place and the interview was great.

We’ve included audio of the entire interview on the Oppenheim Law Facebook Fan Page for your listening pleasure, but here is a summary of my thoughts on the social stigma of foreclosure and how you can fashion your own bailout:

I believe the foreclosure epidemic has become so widespread and far-reaching that the stigma surrounding the issue is greatly reduced across the country.

“In FL alone we now have 26-28% who are behind or in foreclosure,” I said. “I think if you study social networks, you’ll see that foreclosures work like social networks. When you have someone who’s in foreclosure, the moral stigma is reduced because you have a sense of kinship.”

So in response to the enormity of the problem in South Florida, I explained that foreclosure defense needs to be looked at holistically, and homeowners need to take charge of understanding their legal rights and defending themselves.

“From day one, even before Obama became president, we’ve been saying, ‘You have to have your own lifeboat, and you have to do what’s best for your family. You can’t wait for the Ark to come and pick you up. You’re going to have to build your own Ark and fashion your own bailout.’”

I went on to explain that as a foreclosure defense attorney, I work every day to craft unique defenses for each and every client because there is no “cookie cutter” way to stave off foreclosure.

It was a pleasure to have this opportunity, and I would like to thank the Randi Rhodes Show for being such a gracious and entertaining host. And again, we have attached the audio file on the Oppenheim Law Facebook Fan Page.

You can run but you can’t hide from Florida’s deficiency judgments….

While it’s now well accepted that 98% of Florida homeowners in foreclosure are just walking away and putting their head in the sand, it is now becoming apparent that while these folks can run, but they probably can’t hide.

Definition of a deficiency judgment according to Wikipedia:

A deficiency judgment is a judgment lien against a debtor, defendant or borrower whose foreclosure sale did not produce sufficient funds to pay the mortgage in full. This option may or may not be available to the lender, depending on whether they have made a recourse or nonrecourse loan.

Until now, there was some uncertainty whether the banks were going to pursue deficiency judgments from Florida homeowners. Well the evidence is becoming clear that many banks will pursue and ARE NOW pursuing these Florida judgments post-foreclosure.

For the uninitiated, in Florida and other “recourse” states, a Bank would be entitled to obtain a judgment against you for the difference between the mortgage amount and the value of the property. In other words, if your Florida real estate property is worth less than the mortgage the Bank can come after you for the difference. In non-recourse states, like California, the Banks can not do that. Florida is a recourse state and the Banks may have up to five years to bring the action. Although if the Bank doesn’t bring the action within one year after the Florida foreclosure sale, it can be argued that the Bank failed to diligently pursue the case and the Court “could” in theory dismiss the action for failure to prosecute. I say good luck on that one!

Thus, that is why we have been so aggressive in defending Florida foreclosures. A settlement, short sale, modification, deed-in lieu, mediation, bankruptcy or a creative combination of these options, is still better than a bank pursuing you and trying to hunt you and your assets down for 20 years! That’s right 20 years!

So its simple, act like an ostrich… put your head in the sand… deny the facts or fight back! I guess as a kid from the Bronx I know what I would do… “cause you ain’t seen nothing yet”. LOL