More Judges Begin To Put Heat On Foreclosure Mills To Defend Their Court Filings

The Wall Street Journal reports:

• The push by mortgage companies to accelerate the snarled foreclosure process is running into resistance from judges who are cracking down on sloppy paperwork.

• In Florida, a state-court judge has begun forcing lawyers to defend fees charged to borrowers by law firms. Maryland's state appeals court told judges that they can hire experts to scrutinize paperwork filed in foreclosure proceedings—and make lawyers swear that the documents are accurate.

• Since last month, New York has threatened to use "penalties of perjury" against lawyers caught filing bad documents, even if they didn't know about the problems when the foreclosure process began. [...] In New York, lawyers representing lenders filing a foreclosure complaint are now required to sign a document verifying the paperwork in the case is accurate. The state has about 78,000 pending foreclosure cases, up nearly 60% from a year earlier.

• "Given the serious consequences of these kinds of proceedings, it behooves the lawyer to make sure these proceedings are not frivolous or fraudulent or lacking in credibility," said Jonathan Lippman, chief judge of New York's statewide court system, in an interview.

• In Florida last week, Judge Susan Gardner of the Sixth Judicial Court, a two-county region that includes St. Petersburg, ordered three lawyers to appear in her courtroom next month to defend fees contained in foreclosure affidavits. She threatened to lock them up if they don't show.

• In one case, a lawyer for Florida Default Law Group in Tampa signed an affidavit that included $1,630 in fees for a process server, according to legal documents. A review of the file found that the fees incurred were $175, according to an order signed by Judge Gardner.

For the story, see Mortgage Lenders Set Back in Courts (requires subscription; if no subscription, GO HERE, then click appropriate link for the story).