Resistance Against Sloppy Lenders, Foreclosure Mills Mounts As More Homeowners Retain Attorney Help To Challenge Legal Actions & Live "Rent Free"

Buried in a recent story in The New York Times is this excerpt on the effort of one Central Florida attorney in connection with providing foreclosure defense representation to homeowners facing the loss of their homes:

• [Attorney Mark P. Stopa] sends out letters — 1,700 in a recent week — to Floridians who have had a foreclosure suit filed against them by a lender. Even if you have “no defenses,” the form letter says, “you may be able to keep living in your home for weeks, months or even years without paying your mortgage.”

• About 10 new clients a week sign up, according to Mr. Stopa, who says he now has 350 clients in foreclosure, each of whom pays $1,500 a year for a maximum of six hours of attorney time. “I just do as much as needs to be done to force the bank to prove its case,” Mr. Stopa said.

• Many mortgages were sold by the original lender, a circumstance that homeowners’ lawyers try to exploit by asking them to prove they own the loan. In Mrs. Pemberton’s case, Mr. Stopa filed a motion to dismiss on March 17, 2009, and the case has not moved since then. He filed a similar motion in her son’s case last December.

Source: Owners Stop Paying Mortgages, and Stop Fretting.