Northern Florida Attorneys Form Group To Assist Homeowners Facing Foreclosure Due To Dishonest Lending Practices

In Nassau County, Florida, the Fernandina Beach News Leader reports on the efforts of local attorneys Dan McCranie and John Taylor in setting up a free program to help homeowners victimized by mortgage fraud.

• [I]n an effort to educate other attorneys in Nassau County on how to identify victims of mortgage fraud, McCranie contacted Lynn Drysdale, a Jacksonville consumer protection attorney. Along with Taylor, they have been putting together a program that will offer free services to people who are in foreclosure due to dishonest lending practices.

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• McCranie said the free foreclosure program would be "a primer on what attorneys should look for, and what to look at." There are now at least 15 local attorneys on board with the program, McCranie said, a large number of them specializing in real estate. [...] "I think quite frankly they've seen our enthusiasm and want to be part of it," he said. "There's a hell of a lot you can do with foreclosures."

According to the story, McCranie, a personal injury attorney in Fernandina Beach, was unfamiliar with real estate law when he initiated the effort when an 83 year old woman, suffering from glaucoma and cataracts and who was nearly blind, walked into his office and informed him that her home of close to sixty years was scheduled for foreclosure sale in less than a week. A review of her documents indicated to him that the woman had been the unknowing victim of unscrupulous lending practices. McCranie called in Taylor and, together, they stayed the foreclosure sale, sued the mortgage company and the broker who falsified the loan documents, and are now efforting an attempt at settling the case.

For more, see Keep foreclosure at bay from the unscrupulous.