Florida Statewide Volunteer Legal Program To Help Homeowners Avoid Foreclosure Nearing 1,000 Attorneys

In Tallahassee, Florida, the Miami Daily Business Review reports on the Florida Attorneys Saving Homes ("FASH") program, a pro bono effort to help financially strapped Florida homeowners nearing, but not yet in, foreclosure avoid the loss of their homes.

• [F]ASH has expanded to about 1,000 volunteer lawyers statewide and organized a roundtable discussion [last] week in Tampa with lending representatives. [...] “The demand has been so overwhelming that we’re in need of more lawyers,” said Adele Stone, a partner with Atkinson Diner Stone Mankuta & Ploucha in Fort Lauderdale who is on the FASH steering committee. One stated goal of the roundtable was to get more lawyers familiar with the principals of foreclosure defense.

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• “A lot of pro bono attorneys are using this time to gain familiarity with a new area of law. That way they can expand their practice” in the recession, said Jennifer Newton, the program’s director and a staff attorney with Florida Legal Services. The program operates out of Florida Legal Services in Tallahassee and is funded through The Florida Bar Foundation.

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• Not everyone in mortgage distress is eligible for the program. A home already in foreclosure isn’t eligible, and homes must be homestead property to be eligible. [...] FASH is one of many foreclosure public service programs involving lawyers across the state.

For more, see Mortgage Crisis: Program helps keep owners from losing homes.