Our Foreclosure Attorneys Beat Bank of America in this Morning’s Foreclosure Trial in Miami Dade County
Our foreclosure attorneys beat Bank of America in this morning’s foreclosure trial. Here’s the scoop. We propounded discovery requests to the bank, including Requests for Production, Requests for Admissions, and Interrogatories in January 2013. As is usual, we did not get any response. I just love how the banks rush to take someone’s house, but they refuse to follow the rules. Anyway, I digress. When a party fails to answer Requests for Admissions, the requests are deemed admitted pursuant to the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure. So, in this morning’s foreclosure trial, the bank plead a lost note count in their complaint. One of the requests that we asked the bank to admit or deny was that they never really lost the note. The fact that they failed to answer the request means that they admit the note was not lost. Therefore, the bank wold be prohibited from introducing testimony that the note was lost.
So, the bank showed up this morning and filed a Motion for Relief from Technical Admissions asking the court to forgive their mistake and allow the case to proceed without the admissions. Frankly, these motions are generally granted because the law favors hearing cases in the merits, not on technical admissions. After the court heard the bank, the judge asked for my response. I took the court through the whole time line. I explained that our foreclosure attorneys sent the discovery requests in January of this year without any response. When we received the trial order, we asked the bank to provide copies of all trial exhibits pursuant to the trial order. That was about 5 weeks ago. They never gave them to us. So, last week, our foreclosure lawyers emailed them and reminded them that they never responded to discovery nor have they given us copies of the evidence. They finally sent the evidence at the end of the day last Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. The bank then comes to court today with the Motion for Relief from Technical Admissions and answers to interrogatories.
I argued to the court that the interrogatory responses were not responses at all, but they objected to every question and did not provide any real answers. I asked the court to consider the motive in filing the motion. Either they actually wanted to follow the rules and ensure my client receives due process of law or they are trying not to get caught with their pants down. I suggested to the judge that it was the latter. If the bank really was making an effort, albeit late, to comply with the rules, they would have answered the interrogatories, not given ridiculous objections, and they would have responded to the Request for Production. If all they did was answer the Request for Admissions, then its clear that they did not respond to discovery in good faith. The court agreed with me and denied Bank of America’s Motion for Relief from Technical Admissions. The case was over at that point and Bank of America dismissed its foreclosure against my client.
Ok, so what’s the moral of the story? Foreclosure defense attorneys need to propound and pursue discovery. We get clients all of the time who are represented by other foreclosure lawyers and come in with trial dates set. When we review the case, we frequently learn that the attorney failed to send discovery request. Tsk tsk. At Loan Lawyers, you will get aggressive representation at a fair price. We can never promise to win a case and every case has different facts, so results may differ, but we promise to work hard and treat your house as if it were our own.
If you are facing a foreclosure trial, please find a real trial attorney with a proven track record of beating the banks. At Loan Lawyers, we will give you a free consultation with a foreclosure attorney in Broward, Miami-Dade, or Palm Beach. Call us now to schedule your free consultation.