Category: burden of pleading

Before You Fight Foreclosure, Build the Evidence

October 6, 2026

The Records Every Homeowner Should Preserve If you are facing foreclosure, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is starting with an argument before you understand the evidence. That’s why at LivingLies/DefendtheForeclosure we always build the evidence before we even begin to fight foreclosures. Homeowners understandably want answers immediately. “How do I stop the foreclosure?” “Does the bank really own my loan?” “Is the assignment valid?” “Who is the real creditor?” “Can they prove they have the right to foreclose?” Those can be important questions. But there is a question that should come first: What does the evidence actually

Foreclosure Defense attorney to challenge Lender claims

December 11, 2023

In the complex landscape of foreclosure defense, the role of a skilled attorneys is paramount. So many of you told us of your struggles in finding an expert in this are I thought it important to share the importance of why Foreclosure Defense is such a specialty. These legal professionals bring a wealth of knowledge and strategies to the table, significantly influencing the outcome of foreclosure cases. One critical area where they add value is in challenging the lender’s right to foreclose based on various affirmative defenses. Understanding Affirmative Defenses Affirmative defenses are reasons why a lender’s claim to foreclose

How to Stand Your Ground in Court Without Offending the Judge

October 31, 2023

A Guide for Homeowners and Their Attorneys in Foreclosure Defense Did You Take a Loan? We’ve all been there, sitting in a courtroom, listening as the judge fires off a familiar question: “Did you take a loan?” Whether you’re defending yourself or you’ve got a lawyer by your side, this moment can be nerve-wracking. But listen up, it’s crucial to hold your ground. Your response should cut straight to the point: “Your Honor, I’ve had my share of loans over the years. But the key thing here is, I’ve never taken a dime from these folks or anyone they took

What foreclosure Judges want to see in court

September 26, 2023

As Neil Garfield explained to me and many of his clients and readers, the only thing most judges are interested in is where did the money go, who paid, who received and whether it was paid, and if in part, to what extent. One must be very careful to distinguish this from the “show me the note” defense, which was effective for a while in obtaining dismissal of judicial foreclosures without prejudice. Our belief is that the Banks, servicers, and lawyers, through Loan processing Services and its various progeny overcame the missing note with the use of color printers, copiers

Why the CFPB Announcement is Very Important

May 2, 2022

when the time comes that a judge enters an order or judgment containing findings of fact, for example, that the records of the designated “servicer” are not business records that are not exempt from the hearsay rule, the poop will hit the fan. I received multiple emails from lawyers and homeowners who were confused when I posted an article about the latest CFPB announcement. Most people are not clear on why this announcement is so important. I can say this — the lawyers who represent “industry actors” are sending up flares about this announcement. See the Troutman Pepper Analysis.

THREADING THE NEEDLE: IT IS WHAT THEY DON'T SAY THAT REVEALS THE TRUTH — AND YOU CAN USE IT!

January 5, 2022

So talk about splitting hairs — here is a statement from a company that is claimed by third parties to be the servicer of a “loan.” Note that the parties making the claim do NOT swear that PennyMac is servicing claims to administer, collect and enforce for them, but rather for some unknown creditor or some other entity that does NOT make such a claim. Think about that. Here is the quote: PennyMac, who, as the loan servicer, is authorized to accept payments for your loan. And here is the analysis of that statement: PennyMac IS authorized, although not by

Destroying, Hiding or Fabricating Evidence: Doctrines Regarding Spoliation of Evidence

December 28, 2021

The latest issue of the Florida Bar journal contains several interesting articles. One of them is entitled “Spoliation of Evidence and Non-party witnesses.” The author is Gary M Glassman, who is the attorney for Daytona Beach. The major points of the article that I think are relevant to Foreclosure Defense litigation are that (A) spoliation has a very broad meaning and (B) the refusal to produce documents that are relevant to the case at Bar raises an inference in favor of the homeowner, and might even give rise to a cause of action for damages. Foreclosure lawyers have long relied

Stop Using the Labels: Homeowners Lose Foreclosure Cases When They Refer to the "Servicer"

December 27, 2021

You need to challenge the status of the company claiming to be a servicer by finding out what functions they really perform. * I know I have contributed to the problem, but I think it’s time to stop using the labels that are promoted by the banks. * Companies that are claimed to be the “servicer”, by all accounts, do not perform any functions normally attributed to that label. This it is against the interests of the homeowner or the lawyer representing the homeowner to accept the use of the term unless there is foundation testimony as to the actual

Why You Need to Perform Investigation of Real Facts in the Real World

December 22, 2021

I state with great confidence that among those homeowners who perform and achieve a slam dunk win over the foreclosure lawyers, the great majority enjoy that victory because they did the investigation and hired a lawyer who knew what to do with the information (as opposed to slinging it at the judge and expecting the judge to make sense of it). Question received from one of the readers of this blog: “I’m trying to understand how a house in NJ. Is alleged to be notarized in Florida and recorded by a company in Idaho (whose Name of course, is not

You Can Use This As a Template for How I Would Respond in a Discovery Dispute — Especially with Wells Fargo, Fannie Mae and Wachovia as the Originator

December 14, 2021

In a dispute between the attorney for the homeowner and the attorney for the alleged “lender”, there are a number of devices that are nearly universally applied across the country in order to ridicule and defeat the homeowner. The more you are aware of them, the better you will be prepared to deal with them. Opposing counsel is instructed to accomplish several things (winning being the last of the things on his or her menu). First, the idea is to undermine the confidence of the homeowner and to undermine the confidence of the lawyer for the homeowner in any defense

How Likely Is It That a Homeowner Will Win a Foreclosure Case?

November 30, 2021

The answer to this question depends upon the homeowner — not the judge. * If the homeowner rigorously, aggressively and persistently seeks enforcement of the rules of civil procedure, the rules of discovery, the rules of evidence and enforcement of court orders, the chances of quite good that the homeowner role reach a very favorable result. * If the homeowner attempts to make a claim or state and affirmative defense that requires proof of malfeasance by the opposition (or anyone else), probability of failure is extremely high. * The general consensus has accepted the proposition set forth in the national

The fallacy of construing negative decisions as bad decisions for homeowners

November 29, 2021

It’s not the job of courts to save litigants from their own admissions. Here is a simple rule: if you admit the existence of the loan account receivable and you admit the rights of the servicer and the currently named claimant, you have no viable basis to challenge standing or enforceability. “Yes, but” doesn’t count in court. Here is the other rule: if you challenge the existence of the loan account receivable and deny the rights of the servicer and the currently named claimant consistently, starting with the first notices and correspondence that you receive after the apparent “closing” the

Unilateral Mistake: Equitable Defenses Explained — How homeowners can get the upper hand and defend against enforcement of contract that is different from the one they knew or intended

November 10, 2021

Homeowners are missing out on a huge opportunity for economic gain that balances the power between Wall Street and consumers. Courts of equity are courts of conscience, which should not be shackled by rigid rules of procedure,[51] and inherent in a court’s equitable powers is the authority to prevent injustice engendered by fraud, accident, or mistake.[52] Florida Bar Journal Novembert/December 2021 “Two, Three or Four Prongs? The Contractual Defense of Unilateral mistake in Florida” Second, there is a distinction between the equitable remedies of rescission and reformation that may further blur the lines. The Florida Supreme Court and a few others

Who gets a QWR or DVL and When?

September 21, 2021

LEARN HOW TO FIGHT WITH HONOR AND WIN! After some reflection, legal research and analysis I have come to the conclusion that a very good way for homeowners to put tracks in the sand that they can use later with success is to use the following protocol — subject to the opinion of local counsel: Send QWR and DVL to “servicer” and nobody else. Under statutes, service to one is service to all anyway. In cases where the creditor is either asserted or implied to be a bank as trustee for a REMIC trust, send a second QWR and DVL

Tonight! Neil Garfield makes it simple: Lying for Dollars: How to Apply Your Understanding of Securitization Claims to Win

April 8, 2021

Thursdays LIVE! Click into the Neil Garfield Show Tonight’s Show Hosted by Neil Garfield, Esq. Call in at (347) 850-1260, 6pm Eastern Thursdays “Your Honor, this is a standard foreclosure.” That is the first lie told in court as lawyers, and companies claiming to be servicers, lenders, or trustees continue to play their game of lying for dollars. It’s obvious I have not simplified the explanation enough because both lawyers and homeowners still mostly don’t understand what I am talking about. That means they can’t use it effectively, as I have, and that means the judge won’t have any idea what you

Homeowner's Dilemma and Pro Se Nightmare: Wanting the system to change is not the way to win a case

January 6, 2021

Homeowners win because there is no legal claim against them. But they will lose every time if they fail to establish the inability or unwillingness of the foreclosure mill to come up with concrete evidence that there is, in fact, a loan receivable entry on the accounting ledgers of the claimant and that it got there by virtue of a real-world transaction in which value was paid for the underlying obligation. Unfortunately, as we all know, all perjury and fraud upon the court is illegal but always allowed unless it is challenged in a timely and proper way. We need

What Happened With Your "Loan" — By admitting that you received a loan you lose.

December 16, 2020

The plain truth is that homeowners are losing their cases through assymetry of information. They think they understand when they do not have a clue. They are admitting the obvious, which turns out to wholly untrue. In so doing they give the court no choice but to enter judgment aganst them. ApplicationForLoanProcessAndFundingOfServiceFees I am experimenting with new ways to present this. If you click on the above chart you will see that the application process is actually a dead end. Nobody actually agrees to lend any money. Nobody does lend money. Money arrives later at the “closing” table but unknown

Repurchase agreements only advance the myth that loans were purchased in the first place.

December 14, 2020

Investors would do much better if they stopped litigating the duty to enforce repurchase agreements. The repurchase agreement is void because there was no purchase. There are better claims to make that are more easily proven. Homeowner litigants need to have more courage and attack the existence and ownership of the underlying alleged obligation much more explicitly and directly. They will be pleasantly surprised. While they will never get an admission that the whole affair is a scam, they will be able to raise the inference and thus limit the evidence in court that would ordinarily be allowed to prove

After Complaints to AG and CFPB Follow UP!

December 1, 2020

If you are not going to follow up on complaints to your attorney general or the CFPB, then you shouldn’t have filed the complaint in the first place. If you are not going to follow up on demand for discovery, don’t bother filing them. The simple truth is that they never answer the question. They simply use the opportunity to propagate the lie that a loan was securitized when in fact no sale of the loan ever occurred. Most people and many lawyers fail to recognize a simple legal strategy that is available to them, to whit: that the failure

Why You Need to Understand the Truth and How to Use It to Successfully Defend Foreclosure Cases

November 20, 2020

Please Donate to Support Neil Garfield’s Efforts to stop Foreclosure Fraud. You don’t need to believe me. You don’t need proof that what I am saying is true. You have every right in every court to file demands for discovery relating to the existence and ownership of the debt. Ask any lawyer or any judge. They will affirm this to be true. And ask any accountant. The debt exists only if someone maintains a current ledger entry on their own books of record that shows they paid value for the underlying obligation, along with having supporting documentation (proof of payment).

To All Those Requesting an Amicus Brief on Illegal Foreclosures: A different strategy is needed in my opinion

November 12, 2020

I have spent the last six months drafting, re-drafting, editing, researching and investigating the basis for filing a brief as a friend of the court. * The basis for an amicus curiae brief is the anticipated willingness of the receiving court to admit that there are factors involved about which the judge or panel lacks adequate knowledge or understanding. The problem with foreclosures is that judges think they understand all they need to know. Hence an amicus curiae brief is unlikely to be accepted or even read. Some judges might accept it into the court file, but they still won’t

Why are conditions precedent so important in foreclosure cases?

November 6, 2020

The mischaracterization of a condition precedent alters the burden of proof. (e.s.) If compliance with the HUD regulation is a condition precedent to foreclosure, the plaintiff carries the burden of proving substantial compliance with the condition when it presents its case, so long as the borrower has made a specific denial of the plaintiff’s allegation that it had satisfied all conditions precedent (e.s.).2 See, e.g., Chrzuszcz, 250 So. 3d at 769–70. But if compliance with 24 C.F.R. § 203.604 is an affirmative defense, “[t]he defendant, as the one who raises the affirmative defense, bears the burden of proving that affirmative

Trusts, Trustors, Settlors and Fake REMIC Trusts

October 28, 2020

All trusts that are legally recognized as such have the following basic components: the trustor/settlor who (a) executes a written trust agreement and (b) conveys property into the name of the named trustee to hold and manage the conveyed asset(s) for the benefit of named beneficiaries. So the three basic components are (1) property (the res), (2) a trustor/settlor, and (3) beneficiaries. Pooling and servicing agreements when read closely reveal in all cases that they are missing all three components. * Trustees only exist in relation to a defined trust. A trust may technically exist if it is written down

What to do if the foreclosure mill refuses to give you an answer about ownership of the "loan"

October 24, 2020

Summer Chic write me an interesting email and I wrote back. She poses a question that summarizes the entire situation: She wrote: Example: PennyMac claimed that they PURCHASED my loan on May 2, 2019 from someone whom they cannot identify. The financial statements from a non-identified company show that somebody “established a NEW loan” on May 9, 2019. Not a single word about the sale Here is what I wrote back: * As unusual PennyMac (or Ocwen or whoever) claims that it purchased a specific loan (usually in bulk). So we all know that a claim is good for pleading