South Florida Law Blog

Humpty Dumpty has had his great fall, thanks to an outstanding bankruptcy judge who has all but dismantled the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS) thanks to his recent ruling.‪​‪ Last week New York Judge Robert Grossman ruled that all of MERS’ business practices are illegal. It’s a staggering blow to the banks and their endless efforts to circumvent due process. […]

If there was anything positive that came out of the prolonged discussions between the states and the banks on the mortgage servicing settlement, it was that banks were reluctant to go full steam ahead in the foreclosure process while talks were ongoing. But even before the settlement was announced, we saw signs that pointed to more foreclosures in 2012. According […]

The dust has finally settled on last week’s mortgage settlement. It dominated the news cycle once the details of the agreement broke. I spent the bulk of my day a week ago talking to the media and weighing in on it’s significance. But there is one clear question that I haven’t heard anyone been able to definitely answer yet. Has […]

For 5 years now we’ve been a huge champion of the short sale. We’ve been banging and banging away at the banks because they didn’t share our opinion. There has long been an institutional reluctance among our nation’s lenders to embrace the short sale, but it appears they are finally coming around. According to Corelogic’s most recent numbers, short sales […]

The clock may have run out on this year’s Super Bowl (Way to go Giants!!) but there’s still a few minutes left in this year’s REAL grudge match, the Banks vs. the Attorney Generals. It’s 4th and Inches, the score is tied, and it would be nice to avoid overtime. Today we could learn whether the much-discussed robo-signing settlement with […]

President Obama is likely to talk about this in tonight’s State of The Union Address, but we’re not going to wait that long. With details of the proposed $25 billion settlement with the nation’s largest banks over the robo-signing fiasco now out in the public eye thanks to the Associated Press, we feel a large sense of disappointment. There’s no […]

Back when it debuted last April, we were somewhat skeptical that Florida’s Hardest Hit program could provide real benefits for the people it sought to help. We called it a band-aid, and at least for some South Florida homeowners, it’s proving to be just that. The Palm Beach Post profiled several homeowners who were among the first to receive benefits […]

Finally!!!It’s a word that is being bantered about the hallways of Oppenheim Law all too often these days, and thanks to the Fed’s recent comments on the foreclosure crisis, it’s been thrown around at rapid-fire pace these last few days. Through a 26-page white paper which highlighted the “extraordinary problems plaguing the housing market”, officials at the Federal Reserve have […]