The client came to our office with a lawsuit to renew a 20-year-old judgment that was set for trial the following week. In Florida, a judgment is good for 20 years. This is why you should never ignore a lawsuit. If you ignore a lawsuit, the plaintiff will get a judgment against you that will collect interest for the next 20 years. Even though a judgment is good for 20 years, a judgment holder has the right to file a new lawsuit to renew the judgment for another 20 years! That is where this client’s case was. The judgment holder filed a lawsuit to renew the judgment just weeks before the 20-year expiration. The original judgment was for just over $4,000, but with interest, the client now owed over $14,000! The client hired another attorney to negotiate a payment plan to pay this judgment off. She had the good sense to call us for a second opinion, however. We reviewed the case and realized that this case should be taken to trial, which was set for the following week. One of our trial attorneys, Matthew Bavaro, appeared on behalf of the client at trial and was successful in defeating the judgment holder’s attempt to renew the judgment. This means that the client no longer owed any money on the judgment. That was a substantially better result than making a payment plan to pay off the judgment. This is why you should only hire a trial lawyer if you are being sued. Many of the attorneys who represent debt collectors are not trial attorneys themselves, and they rely on everyone settling. However, once they face a real trial attorney, their case often begins to fall apart. This was a phenomenal result for this client and we are so happy to have been able to assist her.
Success Stories
Our client recently tried to take out a loan and discovered that a judgment for tens of thousands of dollars had been entered against for a different loan which they had supposedly not paid in the past. Our client had no idea about the lawsuit or the judgment and had never been sent anything in the mail, nor were they ever served a copy of the complaint. While the actual procedure to notify someone of a lawsuit can be a little more nuanced, it is fair(but not entirely accurate) to say that before you can win a court case against someone, most of the time, you need a hand a copy of the lawsuit to them, or to someone who lives with them. That was simply never done to our client, despite papers being filed with the courthouse claiming that it had been done.
According to the documents filed with the courthouse, the “return of service”, (an unknown person with a physical description which did not in any way resemble our client or any member of their household) had been served a copy of the complaint years ago. We were able to contact the employer of our client and obtain documents proving that at the time our client was supposedly served, years ago, our client was at work. We also swiftly obtained sworn written statements from every member of our client’s household stating that no one who even remotely matched the physical description of our client had ever lived there. This seemed to be an instance of what is called “sewer service”, where a process server writes a generic description of a person, claims they did not share their name and just threw away the papers, though it is possible it was a clerical error.
In the end, we were able to vacate the judgment, reset the clock on an old case, and significantly improve our client’s situation.
Loan Lawyers has helped over 5,000 South Florida homeowners and consumers with their debt problems, we have saved over 1,800 homes from foreclosure, eliminated $100,000,000 in mortgage principal and consumer debt, and have collected millions of dollars on behalf of our clients due to bank, loan servicer, and debt collector violations, negligence and fraud.
Contact us for a free consultation to see how we may be able to help you.
Results may not be typical. You may not have as beneficial a result.
Our client came to Loan Lawyers with the goal of modifying their loan before a foreclosure action was filed. During the loan modification application process, the bank filed its foreclosure action with the court. Loan Lawyers continued the loan modification application process while also defending the pending foreclosure court case.
The bank ultimately offered the client a loan modification with a Deferred Principal Balance of nearly 60% of the New Principal Balance. The client does not pay interest on the Deferred
Principal Balance. The client previously had entered into two loan modification agreements. The most recent previous loan modification required monthly payments in an amount that started out affordable but stepped up to an amount that was nearly double the initial monthly payment. The client could no longer afford the increased monthly payment under the previous loan modification.
Under the new loan modification that Loan Lawyers assisted the client in getting, the amount of the client’s new monthly payment is less than half of their payment under the original loan and even their payment on their most recent previous loan modification. Additionally, none of the client’s previous modifications included a deferral of any of the principal balance. With Loan Lawyers, this client was able to accept a loan modification with an affordable monthly payment, and the client is able to stay in their home.
Loan Lawyers has helped over 5,000 South Florida homeowners and consumers with their debt problems, we have saved over 2,000 homes from foreclosure, eliminated more than $100,000,000 in mortgage principal and consumer debt, and have recovered over $10,000,000 on behalf of our clients due to bank, loan servicer, and debt collector violations. Contact us for a free consultation to see how we may be able to help you.
“Results may not be typical. You may not have as beneficial a result.” Mandatory disclosure from The Florida Bar.
Client Jon Raleigh (not real name, client’s real name withheld for privacy) came to Loan Lawyers in December 2018 to represent them in a pending garnishment action. The client had purchased 2 acres of land in Southwest Ranches from the proceeds of the sale of his previous business as an investment. He decided to build a house and eventually got two mortgages to cover the cost. The initial intention was for the first mortgage to be paid off by the second, but due to circumstances beyond his control, this did not happen. The first Mortgage was ultimately paid off by their title insurance due to some issues and they eventually filed a release of that first mortgage. Unfortunately, the second mortgage was not satisfied and was sold to another entity who brought a foreclosure action in 2013. The client was represented by other counsel during the pendency of the foreclosure action which unfortunately ultimately resulted in a final judgment of foreclosure on January 31, 2018 in the amount of $6,913,086.61. Following the entry of the foreclosure judgment a foreclosure sale took place on March 7, 2018 and the property sold for $100.00.
Subsequent to the foreclosure sale a deficiency action was initiated within the existing foreclosure action to collect on the difference between the $6,913,086.61 foreclosure judgment and the $2,500,000.00 appraisal value of the property which came to APPROX $4,448,697.53. Again the client was represented by the same counsel as in the prior foreclosure action who fought the deficiency action unsuccessfully. Unfortunately once again on August 13, 2018, a Final Judgment of Deficiency was entered against the client by the Court in the amount of $4,648,697.61. Following the entry of the deficiency judgment, the Plaintiff moved to garnish the private and business accounts of the client and was moving to have the Court enter sanctions against the client and was also in the process of setting depositions to aid in the garnishment action.
It was at this stage that the client came to Loan Lawyers to determine if there was any help that we could provide so that the garnishment did not ruin his business. We met with the client and evaluated him for all potential options including filing for bankruptcy protection or possibly liquidating his business interests. The client indicated that if at all possible he wanted to attempt to save his business but it was clear that if the Plaintiff was able to seize the business accounts that the business would ultimately fail. We determined to attempt to reach a negotiated settlement if this were possible. Shortly after our appearance in the case, we reached out to opposing counsel to halt the ongoing litigation to determine if there were some negotiations that could be reached to resolve this matter without the need for additional protracted litigation.
This began a 4-month process of negotiation back and forth with opposing counsel, his client and our client that at the time seemed to keep falling apart. We did not give up and we kept doggedly pursuing all possible settlement options. The result of these extensive negotiations was that the parties were eventually able to come to an agreement and the $4,648,697.61 deficiency judgment was settled for a cash settlement of just over 2.1% of that full amount. Our client had retained us to defend him in a garnishment matter and to attempt to save his business from being ruined and ultimately we were able to negotiate a significant reduction from the Deficiency Judgment and come to a settlement agreement that worked for our client and saved his business.
Loan Lawyers has helped over 5,000 South Florida Homeowners and consumers with their debt problems, we have saved over 2,000 homes from foreclosure, eliminated more than $100,000,000 in Mortgage Principle and consumer debt, and have recovered over $10,000,000 on behalf of our clients due to bank, loan servicer, and debt collector violations. Contact us for a free consultation to see how we may be able to help you.
“Results may not be typical. You may not have as beneficial a result.” Mandatory disclosure from The Florida Bar.
