The secured party, the identified creditor, the payee on the note, the mortgagee on the mortgage, the beneficiary under the deed of trust should have been the investor(s) — not the originator, not the aggregator, not the servicer, not any REMIC Trust, not any Trustee of a REMIC Trust, and not any Trustee substituted by […]

Tags: borrower, creditor, disclosure, escrow agent, foreclosure, foreclosure defense, foreclosure offense, LOAN MODIFICATION, predatory lending, securitization, TILA audit
Posted in Corruption, evidence, expert witness, foreclosure defenses, foreclosure mill, Modification, Pleading, securities fraud, Servicer |

Every lawyer defending Foreclosures has heard the same thing from the bench just before a ruling in favor of the pretender lender — the homeowner did not meet its burden of proof and therefore judgment is entered in favor of the “bank.” The fact that the pretender lender is a bank makes the judge more […]

Tags: acceptance of offer of loan, consideration for loan contract, enforcement of loan contract, loan contract, offer of loan, quasi contract, Wells Fargo manual
Posted in Corruption, discovery, evidence, expert witness, foreclosure defenses, foreclosure mill, Modification, Pleading, securities fraud, Servicer |

Kudos again to Jim Macklin for sitting in for me last night. Excellent job — but don’t get too comfortable in my chair :). Lots of stuff in another mini-seminar packed into 28 minutes of talk. A big point made by the attorney guest Charles Marshall, with which I obviously agree, is don’t admit the […]

Tags: appraisal fraud, bankruptcy, borrower, disclosure, foreclosure, foreclosure offense, investors, Lender Liability, securitization
Posted in Corruption, discovery, evidence, foreclosure defenses, Pleading, Servicer |

Jim Macklin and Dan Edstrom did a great job of packing a great deal of information into 28 minutes of talk time on the Neil Garfield Show last night. I am taking a couple of weeks off the show to do some common follow-up procedures to my heart surgery two years ago. Jim Macklin stepped […]

Posted in Corruption, evidence, expert witness, foreclosure defenses, foreclosure mill, Modification, Motions, Pleading, securities fraud, Servicer |

Click in tonite— tune in at The Neil Garfield Show Or call in at (347) 850-1260, 6pm Thursdays Guest Host Tonight is Jim Macklin, Managing Director, Secure Document Research located in Nevada. He has been a guest on the show before. A dynamic speaker and presenter, he has assisted me in presenting seminars for CLE […]

Posted in Corruption, evidence, expert witness, foreclosure defenses, foreclosure mill, Modification, Pleading, securities fraud, Servicer |

I appear to have sparked some controversy over my comments that were directed at modifications and servicer advances — subjects that are not necessarily related. But they could be related — as where the homeowner seeks a modification on which there have been servicer advances. So to answer some questions about Modifications, I will first […]

Posted in Corruption, evidence, expert witness, foreclosure defenses, Modification, Pleading, securities fraud, Servicer |

I have frequently commented that one of the first things I learned on Wall Street was the maxim that the more complicated the “product” the more the buyer is forced to rely on the seller for information. Michael Lewis, in his new book, focuses on high frequency trading — a term that is not understood […]

Tags: appraisal fraud, bailout, countrywide, disclosure, Fannie, foreclosure, foreclosure defense, foreclosure offense, FORECLOSURE SETTLEMENT, fraud, RESPA, securitization, TILA audit
Posted in Corruption, discovery, evidence, expert witness, foreclosure defenses, foreclosure mill, Modification, Pleading, securities fraud, Servicer |

Several people are issuing statements about servicer advances, now that they are known. They fall into the category of payments made to the creditor-investors, which means that the creditor on the original loan, or its successor is getting paid regardless of whether the borrower has paid or not. The Steinberger decision in Arizona and other […]

Tags: broker-dealer, creditor, investment bank, Investor, mortgage loans, pooling and servcing agreement, Prospectus, Servicer advances
Posted in Corruption, evidence, expert witness, foreclosure defenses, foreclosure mill, Modification, Motions, Servicer |

Danielle Kelley, esq., my law partner frequently says she likes to start with the jury instructions because that is where everything is boiled down to their simplest components. I think it is wise to make references to the standard jury instructions (plus the fact that they were introduced as an amendment to the Florida rules […]

Tags: admissible evidence, BREACH, commercial litigation, contracts, elements of contract, financial injury, florida standard jury instructions, implied contracts, loss
Posted in Corruption, evidence, expert witness, foreclosure defenses, foreclosure mill, Modification, Motions, Pleading, Servicer |

Modifications are like a dirty word in the marketplace. Frustration, chicanery, luring borrowers into default, and crating modifications that are bound to fail so that the banks can get that ever precious foreclosure sale. But there is another side to it, as our guest writer David Abellard points out below. And while I think the […]

Tags: Abellard, home loans, interest rate reduction, Krasker, modification, mortgage modification, princnipal reduction
Posted in Corruption, expert witness, foreclosure defenses, foreclosure mill, Modification, Pleading, Servicer |