Matt Taibbi: Courts Helping Banks Screw Over Homeowners
Retired judges are rushing through complex cases to speed foreclosures in Florida. Including an account of a single hour of Judge Soud’s rocket docket in Jacksonville.
Palm Coast, FL – November 15, 2010 – Clearing the foreclosure mess is a challenge with which our financial and legal systems seem unable to cope. An outstanding, in depth Matt Taibbi piece in the November 25th issue of Rolling Stones Magazine puts things in perspective. Be sure you stay with Taibbi’s article through the account of one hour in Judge A.C. Soud’s rocket docket foreclosure court in Jacksonville, FL. A single hour of court and a few cases is enough to tell the main story. If you see one of these scams, you see them all.
"The foreclosure lawyers down in Jacksonville had warned me, but I was skeptical. They told me the state of Florida had created a special super-high-speed housing court with a specific mandate to rubber-stamp the legally dicey foreclosures by corporate mortgage pushers like Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan Chase. This ‘rocket docket,’ as it is called in town, is presided over by retired judges who seem to have no clue about the insanely complex financial instruments they are ruling on — securitized mortgages and labyrinthine derivative deals of a type that didn’t even exist when most of them were active members of the bench. Their stated mission isn’t to decide right and wrong, but to clear cases and blast human beings out of their homes with ultimate velocity. They certainly have no incentive to penetrate the profound criminal mysteries of the great American mortgage bubble of the 2000s, perhaps the most complex Ponzi scheme in human history — an epic mountain range of corporate fraud in which Wall Street megabanks conspired first to collect huge numbers of subprime mortgages, then to unload them on unsuspecting third parties like pensions, trade unions and insurance companies (and, ultimately, you and me, as taxpayers) in the guise of AAA-rated investments. Selling lead as gold, shit as Chanel No. 5, was the essence of the booming international fraud scheme that created most all of these now-failing home mortgages."
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Cloud on title
The title searches done on these properties will reflect the courts action and will be grounds for a claim. That won’t happen until the property increases in value, but when it does, you can bet lawyers will go after.
That’s why most forclosures have been stopped by banks, to avoid future law suites. They in fact worried about crimial charges on top of civil suites.
This stop in foreclosures actualy helps the rest of the real estate sales that are now not competing with the "dumped" properties.
What to do?
The entire industry is upside down. From my discussions with judges, they are not sure what to do. The banks don’t know what to do. At mediation a few weeks ago, we offered to consent to the final judgment so that the client did not have to deal with the issue any longer. SunTrust’s response….”we cant do that.” Its crazy. I went to a class with the April Charney a week or so ago. We (foreclosure defense attorneys) are beginning to make headway with the courts by showing them that many banks cannot PROVE they own the loan and therefore, do not have the right to foreclose. When successful, the banks negotiate a reasonable settlement. As I said all along, we are all going to have to take a hit on this but so far the banks are hammering on the consumer. An example, the Conservatory mortgage issues. Clearly, I believe there are issues with that one. However, so far, the Conservatory lenders have said….”We cant do that”. That is, until the judge agrees that they cant PROVE they own the loan.
Legislation to force banks
To buy back the collateralized loans. That was the reccomendation of the study group set up by congress. Then they would have to right off the cost, which would put them in negative equity or insoluable positions. Then the government, (all of us) would pay the banks to keep them solvent.
That makes sence for the courts, as then they know who owns the laon they are processings through foreclosure.
Or just assume the federal government owns the loans, and proceed with a federal representative as council.
That is the fastest way of doing it, but perhaps not the politically correct way to do it, as the banks do contribute to the politicians.
A best situation would be to forgive the loan to a point of market value, and keep the owners that are still in their home to pick up at the new rate and start paying again. Of course they would have to be qualified to pay.
To do nothing until market values go back up is another posibility, but who knows when that would happen.
The ecomonic impact of all these ideas has to be wieghed, and some are incalcuable, and just guesses.
Renting the vacant properties out is another, perhaps better idea. It would require an agency at the local level to oversee it. That is however the way to get things cleaned up both in the courts and the properties that sit rotting and distract from neighboring properties both by desire and market value. It would also bring market values to rent cost relationships, which until jobs start back up would be low. But not everyone wants to rent.
Those of us still owning and current on our mortgages or completly paid off would be best served by the matket picking back up, which is directly related to jobs, and nothing else.
Forced retirement would be good legislation to get all the old fokes off the employment sceen, and hire younger unemployed. That’s not being talked about becaause it hits the Social Security fund that is close to insolvency.
Talk now is a Federal sales tax which is a consumption tax that works in many countries. I think it will be the easiest way to bring back the ecomomy, by reducing income tax and creating an even playing field. It would completly eliminate income tax if done right.
We shall see, as big changes are coming in DC with the new congress.
HELP WITH BANKS NO NOTES AND FORECLOSURE
WE LIVE IN A SMALL COMMUNITY IF RURAL OHIO. I AM A WITNESS TO WATCHING BANKS ILLEGALLY TAKE PROPERTY AND PERSONEL ITEMS. ARE DEAR FRIEND CARL AND VERA PERTUSET HAVE BEEN FIGHTING FOR THERE HOME AND PERSONEL ITEMS FOR SEVERAL YEARS NOW WAS ROMOVED FROM THERE HOME BY SWAT TEAM YES A SWAT TEAM STRIPPED SEARCHED AT SHERRIFS OFFICE. FORCLOSURE PROCESS WENT SO WRONG DEATH THREATS 6 ATTORNEYS AND THE BAR ASSOCIATION THREATING TO DISBAR ANYONE YOU REPRESENTS THEM. REFUSING THEM A LEGAL REPRESATION AND TIME IN COURT. THIS IS A VERY LONG STORY AND ALOT OF ILLEGAL THINGS BEING DONE BY BANKS, LAW ENFORCEMENT, COURT SYSTEM, TITLE DEPT ECT. NEED TO GET THEIR STORY OUT PLEASE HELP US DEFEND OUR FRIEND THEIR RIGHTS. THANK YOU & GOD BLESS YOU RENEE JONES