Ill. Foreclosure Mill Removed Affidavit Signature Sheet & Reattached It To Pages With Altered Content, Says Illinois Suit Seeking Class Action Status

In Chicago, Illinois, the Chicago Tribune reports:

• A former Chicago resident whose home is in foreclosure has filed a lawsuit against Fisher and Shapiro LLC, the law firm that admitted to Cook County Circuit Court that some of the mortgage foreclosures it handled contained altered documents.



• The suit, filed in federal court in Chicago Monday, seeks class-action status and comes three months after the court’s Chancery division temporarily halted more than 1,700 mortgage foreclosure cases as a result of the law firm’s admission. Upon further review by the court, the number of cases that was temporarily stayed grew to 2,127.



• Fisher and Shapiro did not admit to rubber-stamping of documents, as is the case in the various “robo-signing” investigations in states like Illinois, where foreclosure actions are processed through the courts. Instead, the firm said that in some cases, the signature page of foreclosure affidavits was removed, the document’s contents were altered and then the signature page was reattached, according to the general administrative order issued by the court March 2.



• Stacy Hill, the plaintiff in the suit, alleges that the law firm’s actions violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.



• In December 2009, Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. filed a foreclosure suit against Hill, who owned a home on Chicago’s south side. Hill has since vacated the home and relocated to the East Coast. That suit, still unresolved, is identified as one of the affected cases containing altered affidavits, according to her attorney, Kelli Dudley.

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• Hill’s suit, which seeks statutory, actual and punitive damages, will not get her home back and Dudley said her client does not dispute the facts of the foreclosure action against her. “This case is only about the procedure,” Dudley said. “The reason for pursuing the litigation is her rights were violated. Before you get to take her house away, you have to follow the procedures.”

For the story, see Law firm Fisher and Shapiro sued over foreclosure cases.

See also, Courthouse News Service: Class Claims Foreclosure Lawyers Doctored Documents.

For the lawsuit, see Hill v. Fisher and Shapiro LLC.