Roy Oppenheim with daughter Wendi Oppenheim

The game was close for most of the night and down by a touchdown. It was late in the fourth quarter.  And then the big play came in; the quarterback threw from about the 35-yard line to the team’s star receiver in the end zone.

But wait. There were a series of flags and the refs called offensive pass interference and two personal penalties. The receiver had pushed himself off the defensemen propelling him into a position to catch the ball.

The Verdict:  Touchdown does not count and the ball was placed back 30 yards further down field. The refs did their job and the fans accepted their fate.

Banks cheated, did not play by the rules

That’s when it all clicked for me.  The banks cheated when they filed their foreclosures. They did not play by the rules. And the refs did not have the backbone to protect the integrity of the game.

If you check the “game” rulebook that is the most important function of a judge: To protect the integrity of the judicial system.  Not to show favoritism, to remain impartial, and to be fair.

What the GMAC, JP Morgan Chase, and Bank of America Foreclosure Fraud crisis is demonstrating to the world is that when the judiciary does not apply the rules fairly they can jeopardize the integrity of the game.

Had last night’s and previous penalties not been properly called, football as we know it, would not be the most popular spectator sport in the US.

It is the RULES that we all know and respect!   The new video replay ref is an added form of protection to ensure that no illegal play is permitted to go forward in the game. What a PR problem it would be to allow 250 million people to see a bad call on TV and YouTube!

So why did the judges who are all licensed attorneys and have taken various oaths of office allow this spectacle to happen? The answer is plain and simple. They were playing to the home team fans as opposed to their professional obligations. In this case the home team was the banks, their attorneys and a governmental apparatus that wanted the foreclosure cases disposed of as quickly as possible at all cost.

Who cares about the rules or about offensive pass interference? That receiver last night would have caught the ball anyhow, is what until days ago the judges were saying.  I say NO!

Let’s hold the judicial system accountable

As avid sports fans and members of a democracy viscerally understand RULES count and playing fair is a hallmark of our system. I think we need to hold the judicial system accountable.

I don’t want to hear the excuses. I couldn’t see the play; my line of sight was blocked, I was afraid that if I called the play according to the rules, the game would go into over-time; it was unwritten not to enforce certain rules; or better yet, I am not in good-enough shape to run up and down the field. Or come on… you don’t really expect me to count the number of players on the field?

Let’s be blunt: the judges were co-opted by having “rocket dockets”

The judicial system was expected to become the private collection agencies of the banks. The judges assumed that the banks and their attorneys would not cheat. All across this nation the judges were caught sleeping in the drivers seat. Time and time again homeowners were denied their procedural due process rights to present evidence and confront the banks.

May I respectfully suggest that our esteemed judiciary spend a little more time with their sons and daughters at Friday night high school football games and ask themselves what would happen if they kept making bad calls all night, every game?

Roy Oppenheim

From the trenches

P.S.

I continue to help Florida homeowners learn more about developing stories concerning bank fraud like today’s Sun Sentinel story and also last night’s CBS Investigative Report headline Mortgage Foreclosure Nightmare. I will focus on mortgage foreclosure bank fraud in my  foreclosure defense workshop on Wednesday October 6 at 6pm.

Stocks Up + Economy Recovering, But a New Real Estate Storm On The Radar

Book the First: Recalled to Life

On the national front, news stories indicate that the stock market is steadily resurrecting itself, the first real positive sign that the economy may finally be on the mend. A recent article in The Wall Street Journal noted that banks especially were showing vast improvements, with J.P. Morgan Chase calculating a 55% surge in quarterly profits. While the news is encouraging, there is still hesitation rather than outright relief in the undertone of the stories. The reason: if the banks have not learned from their mistakes, the economy might be six feet under again and sooner than we think.

Book the Second: The Golden Thread

While numbers in South Florida still appear disheartening, a little golden thread appears to be tying up the drowning homeowners into a pretty little package called loan modifications. Although a recent article in The Sun-Sentinel quoted RealtyTrac stating that foreclosure filings in Broward had risen 38% in Broward from March 2009, the numbers seem to be decreasing slightly from previously months. The federal government attributes this to the success of new government workout programs.

Recent statements from the Treasury Department tout the success of the new government loan modification programs. Although the programs did not technically go into effect until April, some banks began using them “successfully” earlier. A recent press release by the Assistant Secretary of Financial Stability for the Treasury Department stated the new programs were on track to help 3 to 4 million homeowners by the end of 2012, with over 1.4 million homeowners already beginning the application process. While this appears to be a positive turn, everything will fall apart if that single golden thread snaps.

Book the Third: The Track of a Storm

Interestingly, there are many unanticipated problems stemming from these workouts that might put the housing market right back into the tempest. Loan modifications, while being touted by the government as the evacuation that might save homeowners, are creating a path of destruction in their wake. In fact, while loan modifications are helping some owners, it appears to be hurting others in the process by driving down the value of homes and pushing others further underwater on their loans, leading to more foreclosure filings overall.

Another problem was reported in The New York Times: homeowners who receive modifications are defaulting again, eventually losing their homes to foreclosure anyway. Although the U.S. Treasury stated the 1% of loan modification recipients who had already defaulted this year under modified loans were expected, numbers from previous programs are not encouraging. Reports from 2008 and 2009 showed that eventually 60% of modification recipients re-defaulted. The problem is not the program itself, but rather the fact that by the time relief comes, homeowners are already buried in insurmountable debt.

Right now, it appears that South Florida is in the direct path of the storm, and it could either die off or score a direct hit with thousands of casualties.  While optimistic reports indicate that the worst is over, it really appears we are actually in the eye of the storm, and the worst might be still to come. Overall, the current market seems like a precarious teeter-totter, with the stock market up and the housing market down. Once the two find a delicate balance, the economy should finally stabilize. For now, it is the best of times… and the worst of times.