More On Allegations That Foreclosure Mill Used 'Process Service' Racket To Run Up Charges When Serving Legal Papers

The Tampa Tribune reports:

• Internal files from a company used by Florida's largest foreclosure law firm provide more detail about recent allegations that lenders were overbilled and lawsuits were served to people who don't exist. In some cases, thousands of dollars in process fees were billed on a single property to multiple people, according to documents obtained by The Tampa Tribune.

• Such fees for service represent the first step in the foreclosure procedure employed by the law offices of David J. Stern, one of four "foreclosure mills" under investigation by the state. Florida's attorney general is investigating the company for allegedly "fabricating" or "presenting false and misleading" documents.

• The firm delegates the chore of serving notice to homeowners that a lender is foreclosing on their property to two companies. Miami-based Gissen & Zawyer Process Service, known as G&Z, is one of those companies.

• Internal documents and billing records at G&Z back up sworn statements by former employees at the company and at Stern's firm that accounts were charged for notice of service to people who don't exist. Typical service fees in a foreclosure suit range from $45 to $300, industry experts say, but in some cases, G&Z's bills for service on a single property reached $1,200 to $5,000.

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• Internal company invoices from three days last fall show G&Z served 60 to 80 people a day for more than $30,000 each day for service for Stern's files. "There's no way they could have that many legitimate papers," said Liz Mills, a former process server for G&Z. "There were only three of us who worked the county I worked in."

For more, see Foreclosure documents back allegations of overcharging.