Success Stories

What a great way to end the year for our South Florida foreclosure attorneys. We had our last foreclosure trial of the year. It was against BSI Financial Services in Broward County. This is the second time we beat this bank at trial in the last couple of months. They have not beaten us at trial yet. The bank’s law firm was Greenspoon Marder. They have a reputation as a quality law firm in the community. I won’t name the attorney who tried the case because I actually feel for her, although after she called me “slimy” before trial, I should name her.

Prior to the foreclosure trial, the bank offered to allow our client to stay in the house for 120 days, waive the right to collect the deficiency from the client, and would give her $8,000 to move. My suspicion is that almost all foreclosure defense attorneys would jump at that deal. That because many foreclosure lawyers do not go to trial for their clients. I don’t think many foreclosure defense attorneys would have the guts to turn that down. When I first arrived in court, the bank lawyer told me that now they are offering my client nothing because we did not jump at her offer sooner. I told her we are not interested in anything other than having our day in court.

The bank initially filed its foreclosure lawsuit swearing under oath that they lost the note. Forty-eight hours before the trial, the bank drops its lost note count. I asked for a 60 day continuance of the trial to ask for additional time to conduct discovery about the circumstances of this mysteriously found note. The court agreed and gave the continuance. As I was writing up the order, the bank’s lawyer came over to me in a packed courtroom and called me slimy loud enough for many people to hear. She was ranting and raving about me asking for a continuance. She wanted to go back up to the judge and re-address it. When we got up there, I was getting so annoyed by this bank lawyer, I told the judge that I no longer wanted a continuance and I wanted to be the first case to go to trial. This may be one of the first times a foreclosure defense attorney went back on his request for a continuance after it had been granted. So, we got sent upstairs for trial to a different judge.

Then, the fun started. I do not think that the bank could have done a worse job putting on their case. For starters, they did not bring the original mortgage. While the law does not require an original mortgage to be introduced into evidence at trial, the bank must be able to authenticate a copy of the mortgage before it can come into evidence. Authentication means that the witness must be able to testify that the mortgage is a true and correct copy of the original or they must have a certified copy. Well, the copy of the mortgage was not certified so that option was out the window. The comical part of this was that the copy of the mortgage they brought was missing pages 5 through 15! I can honestly say that I say that I have never seen that before. The bank lawyer and the bank representative were stunned by this. Obviously, the judge did not allow this mortgage into evidence. If the bank lawyer was smart, she would have dismissed this foreclosure case right there because she can’t win without a mortgage. Stubbornly, she pressed on and it never got any better for them.

The bank lawyer tried to introduce the default letter and the payment history from the prior loan servicer into evidence. She fell woefully short of getting past my hearsay objection. The judge kept these records out of evidence pursuant to the Fourth District Court of Appeals cases on Yang and Glarum. This argument is a post unto itself, so I’ll give the gist of the argument. Basically, a current loan servicer can not normally lay the foundation for the the introduction of the prior loan servicer’s records. Thus, these records were not allowed into evidence. The show was over at that point, but the bank kept pressing on and actually allowed the court to issue a final judgment in my client’s favor. That was a huge rookie mistake. Now, my client has a final judgment in her favor. She should have dismissed and re-filed the lawsuit. The bank lawyer was actually surprised that she did not win after all that.

Now, I wanted to go up to her after the trial and say something like “That continuance looks pretty good about now, huh” or maybe “Not too shabby for a slimy lawyer”, but I tried not to allow my ego get in the way. She was licking her wounds enough and she learned a valuable lesson.

Moral of the story??? If you are facing a foreclosure trial anywhere in Florida, you need an attorney with the guts, the knowledge, and the experience to go to trial for you. It is highly unlikely to get this type of result if you don’t have a lawyer who knows their way around a courtroom. Now, the facts of every case are different and no specific outcome is guaranteed.

If you are facing a foreclosure, don’t face it alone. Put the Loan Lawyers team behind you. We offer free consultations with our foreclosure lawyers in Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties. Call us now, don’t delay. (844) 344-4813

Our client hired us to assist them in fighting a credit card lawsuit. The balance of the alleged debt at the time a case was finally filed against them was the better part of fifty thousand dollars. We prepared a defense and counter-sued the creditor alleging violations of consumer protection laws, specifically the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Shortly before a critical hearing which may have decided the outcome of the case, the creditor offered to drop all of their claims against our client, if our client agreed to drop their lawsuit against the creditor. Our client agreed, saving the better part of fifty thousand dollars in the process.

A homeowner came to Loan Lawyers after the bank already had a foreclosure judgment against him and had a scheduled sale date on his homestead property. Understandably, the client was anxious at the prospect of losing his home. After reviewing the homeowner’s income, expenses, debts and assets, we began to strategize on how to save his home.

Loan Lawyers filed a chapter 13 bankruptcy on behalf of the homeowner to stop the sale of his home. In a bankruptcy, we take a holistic approach in an effort to alleviate the debtor’s outstanding debt to allow the proverbial fresh start. In this case, in addition to the first mortgage judgment, the client had a second mortgage which was in default and outstanding credit card and medical debt.

The process of obtaining a mortgage modification can take several months. While we were working on the modification, we filed a motion to value the second mortgage. This allowed our client to remove the second mortgage’s lien against the property and treat their claim as an unsecured creditor. About eight months after filing the bankruptcy, Loan Lawyers was able to obtain a modification on the first mortgage.

At this point there were still some loose ends to tie up. A couple of his unsecured creditors filed proof of claims on debts that were beyond the statute of limitations. Loan Lawyers turned the tables on these creditors and sued them for violating the Federal Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and was able to recover fees for the client. In short, this client went from days away from losing his home to obtaining a modification, removing his second mortgage (assuming he completes his bankruptcy) and successfully suing his creditors for violating collections laws.

Phelan Hallinan is a Florida law firm that represents banks in foreclosure, among other things. When Phelan Hallinan filed a foreclosure against our client, it included a notice that they claimed was required under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”). The FDCPA is the Federal law that governs debt collectors and is designed to protect those in debt from abusive debt collection practices. Phelan Hallinan got it wrong on several fronts and violated the FDCPA. First off, the notice is not required and anyone who took a moment to consider the law would come to that conclusion. Second and more importantly, the notice itself misstated the law. There is certain language that must be in every communication from a debt collector. All a debt collector has to do is copy the language verbatim from the statute.

Well, somehow, Phelan Hallinan managed to get this simple copy and past task wrong and misquoted the statute. In doing so, it created confusion for consumers. Loan Lawyers filed a lawsuit a lawsuit on behalf of our client in Federal Court in the Southern District of Florida, alleging that Phelan Hallinan violated the FDCPA. Although they are a law firm, since the prosecute foreclosures, they are treated a debt collectors and are subject to the same rules as all other debt collectors. Just like any other debt collector, if they violate our clients’ rights, we will sue them.

It is VERY common for bank lawyers to violate the FDCPA. If you are in foreclosure or even if you have lost your house to foreclosure, you may be able to sue the bank lawyer for violating your rights. We do all of the work, we pay all of the costs, and if we are successful, you get a check. Odds are that if you have been sued for foreclosure or are being sued for foreclosure, you have a case against the bank’s law firm.

Well, in response to the FDCPA federal lawsuit for this client, Phelan Hallinan decided to settle and write a check to our client who they were suing for foreclosure. We take all of these cases on contingency, so there’s no fees or costs unless we win or settle your FDCPA claim. If you were served foreclosure papers prepared by Phelan Hallinan, or any other bank lawyer, we may be able to help you as well. Even if you have lost your house to foreclosure already or if you received a loan modification, it may still be possible to sue the bank lawyer! The facts of every case are different and prospective clients may not obtain the same or similar results. The bank lawyers may not like us very much, but hey, I didn’t become a lawyer to become friends with bank lawyers. They have no problem suing my clients, so why should we have a problem suing them when they violate the law and our clients’ consumer rights?

Give Loan Lawyers a call now at (844) 344-4813 to schedule your free consultation with one of our FDCPA attorneys to see if you have a case against the bank or their lawyers. We have offices in Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach county.

Client came to us after recently discovering that his house had in fact been sold without his knowledge for 5 years. The Bank has fraudulently claimed he received service of process of the actual complaint in the case, which our client had no clue had been filed. We conducted extensive research and discovered that in fact the matter should never have gone to judgment let alone a sale of his home. We were able to get the judgment and the sale vacated, yet the Bank once again tried to fraudulently take the home. We then found the Bank trying to do the same thing again and quickly sprang into action advising that if they persist they will be served with a Federal Complaint accordingly. The case concluded and we are currently working on a 6 figure settlement for our client who was a victim of wrongful foreclosure.

The Client contacted our office because they were sued by a Debt-Purchaser. The lawsuit alleged that our Client defaulted on an old credit card debt. The lawsuit claimed that a number of documents were attached to support the claim that our Client had signed up for a credit card, used it and not paid for it. Yet the documents which the Debt-Purchaser attached to the lawsuit had nothing to do with credit cards and actually concerned the rental of a riding lawn mower! The Debt-Collector even included an affidavit signed by one of their employees swearing that our Client owed a credit card debt.

We filed a counterclaim alleging violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and a Motion for Summary Judgment. A summary judgment was quickly entered in favor of our client as to the lawsuit against them. The counterclaim is still ongoing but we anticipate that the Court will order the Debt-Purchase to pay damages for their misconduct.

John C. (real name withheld for privacy) came to Loan Lawyers with a problem regarding forced-place insurance on his property. John owned his house free and clear and needed some cash for his business. He applied and was approved for a home equity line of credit for a small fraction of the value of his home. Part of his deal with the bank was that he would not have to carry any additional insurance on the property than he already had. John made his monthly payments in full and on time and paid his property insurance premiums in full and on time for the next 8 years. After 8 years, the bank decided to force-place insurance on the property and raised his monthly payments over $200.00.

John repeatedly went into his local branch where he had first obtained the loan and spoke with everyone he could, but to no avail. He also sent letter after letter to the bank trying to get to the bottom of the issue. The bank sent inspectors to his house to take photographs, and one inspector even told John’s neighbor that he was taking pictures because the property was in foreclosure, which was a lie. Loan Lawyers took John’s case on a contingency basis, so John wasn’t obligated to pay Loan Lawyers anything unless the prevailed. While discussing his force-placed insurance issue, Loan Lawyers looked into the totality of the debt issue to determine what other causes of action John may have available to him. After additional questioning, we found out that the bank had started calling him on his cell phone about his debt. John initially kept asking the bank to stop the calls and even wrote them about it. However, the calls kept coming. John had just been ignoring the calls and had mostly stopped using his cell phone because all of the calls were driving him crazy.

Loan Lawyers immediately filed a lawsuit against the bank and alleged violations of various federal and state laws. One of the counts in the lawsuit was for violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C §227, et seq. (“TCPA”). The TCPA makes it illegal for a company to call someone’s cell phone using an automatic telephone dialing system without the person’s express consent. The penalties for each violation are between $500.00 and $1,500.00 per call. Due to the high value of the case, the bank fought tooth and nail and hired a top law firm to represent them. Loan Lawyers fought hard for our clients rights and during the heavy litigated case discovered that the bank had called the client over 1600 times in less than a year. Loan Lawyers was also able to prove that the client had repeatedly asked the bank to stop the barrage of calls. We were successful in settling John’s case for $975,000.00, which was a life-changer for our client. Had John gone to most other law firms, they would have addressed the insurance claim and ignored the phone calls because the client hadn’t mentioned them. Since Loan Lawyers takes a comprehensive and holistic approach to every case, we were able to obtain an incredible result for our client.

Another happy Miami-Dade foreclosure client. Our foreclosure defense lawyers beat Specialized Loan Servicing (“SLS”) at last week’s Miami-Dade foreclosure trial. The plaintiff was Wells Fargo as trustee of some securitized trust, but SLS was the servicer. I actually thought that this case would be an easy win, but we had to work really hard to achieve this result. The foreclosure trial went on for many hours. We were successful in keeping out much of the bank’s evidence, but they got in much of what they needed to win the case.

The bank still had to admit the loan payment history and the default letter. They were both prepared by the prior loan servicer, Bank of America. The bank’s witness worked for SLS, not Bank of America. He was very honest and admitted he did not know anything about Bank of America’s business practices. Based upon this, our foreclosure lawyers argued to that the loan payment history is hearsay and inadmissible. The bank argued that it was admissible under the “business records exception”. I pointed out to the court that these were the records of Bank of America, not SLS and without testimony and Bank of America’s record keeping practices the loan history is inadmissible. I argued case that support my position such as Glarum and Yang. The court disagreed with my position (much to my surprise) and allowed in the loan payment history. Things looked pretty bleak at that point because the last thing the bank needed to win was to get the default letter into evidence and if the court allowed in the loan payment history prepared by Bank of America, it seemed likely she would admit the default letter. However, like any good trial lawyer, you never give up.

After my voir dire of the witness on the default letter, much to my delight, the court kept it out of evidence. This was the last few minutes of the trial and was a huge victory. Without this letter in evidence, the bank could not prove that it met the condition precedent. The bank did not take a voluntary dismissal at that point and they rested their case. I asked the court to involuntarily dismiss the case because they failed to prove that they properly accelerated the loan. The court agreed and involuntarily dismissed the case.

By the way, when you read other attorneys’ website who claim to be foreclosure fighters, how many of them actually post the court’s findings so you can see for yourself?

The best part of this case is that my client is an 88 year old woman. How in the world could I ever break the news to this elderly woman she has to leave her house because the bank won? Thank G-d I did not have to tell her that I got to share the great news that we won! There’s no questions about it, I love representing homeowners. Of our 5 trials so far this year, we have won/dismissed 4 of them. I head to Flagler County for trial tomorrow. This is going to be a busy year for trials!

This was actually my second trial last week with SLS. On the first trial, the bank knew they had evidentiary problems, so rather than risk a loss, they took a voluntary dismissal.

If you have a trial set on your foreclosure case, you need to find a great trial lawyer NOW. Do not go to trial on your own, you will almost certainly lose. If you have an foreclosure defense attorney, make sure that they are a trial attorney who knows their way around a courtroom. Our foreclosure lawyers are available for a free consultation in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach. Call us NOW at (844) 344-4813.

We just scored another bog principle reduction for a foreclosure client. As always, we try to post results online so that you can see them for yourself. How many other foreclosure lawyers are doing that? Advertising is one thing, putting your results out there for the world to see is another.

The principal balance on this loan went from $136,000 (the original loan amount) to $55,000. I’m too tired to figure out the exact percentage, but its pretty stellar. The interest rate went from 8.724% to 2% for 5 years, then 3.32% for the remainder of the loan. This is not a new 30 or 40 year term, the modification keeps the current maturity date.

Overall, the principle and interest payment went from $1020.25 to $238.68. Again, I’m too tired to do the math right now, but percentage-wise, it’s rather significant. Kudos to our foreclosure lawyers for getting this done.

Results like this are never guaranteed and are not always easy to achieve, but if you want to have any chance of getting a result like this, you need to find a law firm that has a proven track record and a reputation for being fighters and not being afraid to go toe-to-toe with the banks and their liars, I mean lawyers.