Interesting find: Florida Default Law Group Under Investigation…

Not a whole lot here, but the Florida Attorney General’s Office is looking into the Florida Default Law Group for filing “false and misleading documents.”

New Case Law on Note Ownership

As many of you know, the Second District Court of Appeal, which covers portions of Central Florida, issued an important decision (now known as BAC Funding Consortium) regarding what a bank has to do in order to prove its ownership of the note, specifically with regard to “blank endorsement” cases.

Yesterday, the Fourth District Court of Appeal, which covers South Florida, adopted the Second DCA’s ruling.  In pertinent part, the court stated:

“In the instant case, th e endorsement in blank is unsigned and unauthenticated, creating a genuine issue of material fact as to whether Aurora is the lawful owner and holder of the note and/or mortgage. As in BAC Funding Consortium, there are no supporting affidavits or deposition testimony in the record to establish that Aurora validly owns and holds the note and mortgage, no evidence of an assignment to Aurora, no proof of purchase of the debt nor any other evidence of an effective transfer.”

In short order, the Fourth DCA is telling the banks to actually prove ownership after transfer or lose the case.  Great news for homeowners.

Fraud in Foreclosure Process

While it seems like the idea of non-judicial foreclosures in Florida has lost steam, there just keep being more and more reminders of why due process is so essential in foreclosure cases.  Now, the problems of Florida’s foreclosure mill law firms is finally getting some national attention.  Today, the Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog noted:

“Now one judge in Florida has ruled there was “fraud” by a bank in a foreclosure case, raising questions about how banks — and so-called foreclosure “mill” law firms that work for banks — are attempting to claim homes from borrowers in default. Here’s the WSJ story….

The Florida case, U.S. Bank v Ernest Harpster, was dismissed last month by Judge Lynn Tepper of Pasco County after she found that an “assignment of mortgage” filed in the case, which was meant to show how U.S. Bank obtained ownership of the mortgage, was false. The document (seen at the bottom of this link) was dated 2007 but the judge found it was created in 2008.”

Check out the story for some great links.