Jon Coats Law Blog

I see it every day in my practice, i.e., foreclosing banks filing questionable documents with the court like assignments of mortgages that mysteriously show up months after the plaintiff filed the foreclosure complaint.  Heck, in some of my cases the plaintiffs file multiple conflicting assignments, signed by the same people on behalf of multiple lenders and servicing companies.  Obviously, these documents always raise questions and are attacked by attorneys like myself representing homeowners in foreclosure cases, but now . . . finally. . .  it looks like our arguments to the Courts are finally being heard, and today the Florida Attorney General’s Office announced that it has launched three new investigations into allegations of unfair and deceptive actions by Florida Foreclosure Mill law firms.

The firms at the center of the investigation are “The Law Offices of Marshall C. Watson, P.A.”; “Shapiro & Fishman, LLP”; and the “Law Offices of David J. Stern, P.A.”.  According to the Attorney General’s official press release, “Because many mortgages have been bought and sold by different institutions multiple times, key paperwork involved in the process to obtain foreclosure judgments is oftent missing.  On numerous occasions, allegedly fabricated documents have been presented to the courts in foreclosure actions to obtain final judgments against homeowners.  Thousands of final judgments of foreclosure against Florida homeowners may have been the result of the allegedly improper actions of the law firms under investigation.”

Additionally, the Attorney General’s office has noted that it is “also investigatin whether the law firms have created affiliated companies outside the United States where the allegedly false documents are being prepared and then submitted to the law firms for use.”   WOW!!  This is amazing stuff.  It is stuff that the foreclosure defense bar has been screaming about for the past couple of years, and finally it looks like some action will be taken.

Subpoenans have been served on the law firms in question and the investigations are under way, so now we wait and see if this conspiracy that has resulted in thousands and thousands of Florida homeowners losing their homes is finally uncovered.