Maryland Foreclosure Rules Changes On State High Court Agenda Today

The Baltimore Sun reports:

• Maryland's highest court will convene today for a hearing on changes to foreclosure rules that would conform with new legislation that gives homeowners more notification and a longer waiting period before their homes are sold. The hearing by the Court of Appeals follows a top judiciary subcommittee meeting yesterday in which officials discussed further reforms and changes to help ease a foreclosure crisis that is engulfing the state and country.

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• The crisis has also sparked judicial intervention. In a letter urging Maryland's lawyers to help those in distress, Chief Judge Robert M. Bell of the Court of Appeals wrote, "This is one of the most important pro bono initiatives of our time. In its absence, the thousands of individuals and families now at risk would almost surely move from being homeowners to becoming homeless."

For more, see Foreclosure in court (Judges consider changes to rules).