Central Florida's "Hang 'Em High, Harry" Ready To Wield Heavy Gavel To Hammer Sloppy Foreclosure Mills Unable To Follow Simple Court Rules

In Sarasota, Florida, the Sarasota Herald Tribune reports:

• Criminal defense attorneys used to call Judge Harry Rapkin "Hang 'Em High Harry" for his tough prison sentences, and his latest crackdown in foreclosure court might have home lenders trying to come up with a similar nickname.

• Rapkin unleashed a new order last week, aimed at attorneys for lenders who are still making the kind of simple errors that would be considered ridiculous in any courtroom. A lot is at stake; Rapkin sees hundreds of cases where the lender is minutes away from taking someone's property. Rapkin's new order completely dismisses foreclosure cases when they do not follow the simplest of rules.

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• "This isn't brain surgery," said Sarasota attorney Michael Belle, who reviews foreclosure filings for the judges as part of a court-sponsored program. On Sept. 24, the day Rapkin debuted the order, a quarter of the 250 cases seeking his permission to retake property made one of the errors, 61 in all.

• Rapkin's checkboxes [listing the most common mistakes he sees in foreclosures] give him a quick way to make rulings on the cases. But it also has a twinge of ridicule: as in, can you believe professional attorneys can get things this wrong? Belle said it is a sad commentary about how a judge feels he must hold the hand of these attorneys just to meet elementary standards. "Judge Rapkin is now finally saying I can't trust these guys anymore, so here's what I'm going to do," Belle said.

For more, see Sarasota judge simplifies foreclosure cases (COURTROOM: A checklist of filing errors can bring a case to a halt).