Presented by Ricardo & Wasylik, PL

Foreclosure fraud investigations came from hard work of consumer advocates

September 7, 2010

Demanding foreclosure accountability Michael Redman and Lisa Epstein didn’t take their foreclosure cases sitting down – they fought back, and fought back hard. Now, in part due to their hard work and tireless advocacy, the Florida Attorney General’s office has launched investigations into four of the largest foreclosure plaintiff’s firms in Florida. Epstein and Redman […]

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“There is a great deal of fraud.” – Bill McCollum on Florida’s Foreclosure Mills

September 7, 2010
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Foreclosure Myths and Facts If you read the newspapers, you’ll know two things about foreclosures in Florida: There’s a huge “backlog” – that’s what the banks call it when they can’t ram their fraudulent cases through the court system to take people’s homes fast enough; and, There’s a huge amount of fraud slipping through the […]

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Why Did Smith Hiatt & Diaz Have to Pay a $49,000 Fine?

September 3, 2010
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Imagine a law firm so sloppy the court imposed a $49,000 fine on them. Well, you don’t have to imagine – Smith, Hiatt & Diaz got hit with that fine last week. I promised you I’d post the court order as soon at it was released – and here it is: the order of contempt […]

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I Have a Hearing Tomorrow.

September 1, 2010
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A Sudden Bullfight Imagine, for a moment, that you have a bullfight tomorrow. In the hot afternoon sun, you’ll step into a bullring, cape in one hand, blade in the other, and stare down an angry, two-ton beast with long, sharp horns. How long have you known about this bullfight? Sometime this morning. And, oh, […]

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Smith Hiatt and Diaz, foreclosure mill, hit with $49,000 contempt fine

August 30, 2010
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I just got a short report from a friend in Manatee County about big events happening in Bradenton today: “Judge Dunnigan just fined Smith Hiatt & Diaz $49,000.00.” If they don’t pay within 4 days, it’s another $7,000 per day. This apparently arises from an incident a few weeks ago when Manatee County Judge Janette […]

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Inadmissible Affidavits: National Law Journal Quotes Attorney Mike Wasylik

August 27, 2010
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Regular readers of this site know that much of the “evidence” banks try to introduce into foreclosure cases is either inadmissible or sometime just flat-out fake. The national news media is picking up on this crisis. The National Law Journal reports on the use of boilerplate affidavits in Florida’s foreclosure cases: Defense lawyers across Florida […]

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Fraudulent foreclosure affidavits on a massive scale: The Gulf Coast Business Review

July 7, 2010

In every foreclosure case, there are at least one, possibly two, points at which a legal notice must be published. In every foreclosure case, the notice of sale must be published in a local newspaper twice before the sale (Fla. Stat. § 45.031 (2)) and in some cases, if the owner of the property cannot be […]

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More bizarre foreclosure affidavits

June 28, 2010

The Plaintiff’s firm in a foreclosure action we’re defending just filed an affidavit in support of its request for attorney fees on this contested case. After reciting all the boilerplate preliminaries, the affidavit said: Smith, Hiatt, & Diaz has reached a fee agreement with their client wherein the Firm is paid based upon a flat […]

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Ricardo, Wasylik & Kaniuk Meet Other Foreclosure Fighters at Florida Bar Convention

June 21, 2010

Foreclosure fighters at the annual Florida Bar Convention Later this week, the Florida Bar will have its annual convention in Boca Raton, Florida. The lawyers of Ricardo, Wasylik, & Kaniuk PL will be there collaborating with other foreclosure fighters and meeting homeowner advocates from all over the state to coordinate our battle plan for the […]

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Former Taylor Bean & Whitaker CEO indicted for massive fraud

June 16, 2010
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We all knew that something funny was going on at Taylor, Bean & Whitaker. Now we know the Feds think so too: [Lee Bentley Farkas] The former chairman of a large mortgage lending company has been charged in a $1.9 billion fraud scheme that contributed to the failure of Colonial Bank, one of the nation’s […]

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How to clear the foreclosure docket: an open letter to Florida’s judges

April 24, 2010

Dear Florida judges: You’re under a lot of pressure. We understand. Foreclosure cases are at an all-time high, and still rising – and you have to figure out a way to handle them all. The foreclosure docket threatens to crowd out almost every other civil matter pending before the court – and now that foreclosure […]

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Lawyers for Homeowner Rights sponsor Rally in Tally

April 20, 2010
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Lawyers for Homeowner Rights, a group of Florida foreclosure lawyers dedicated to protecting the legal rights of Florida homeowners, are set to march on Tallahassee to protest a dangerous new foreclosure law proposed by the banks. What if you were accused of a crime, convicted, and sentenced without a trial? Imagine you were accused of […]

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Foreclosure mill lawyer Forrest McSurdy calls truth a “technicality”

April 19, 2010

The Wall Street Journal published an article on the two Sixth Circuit cases I wrote about last week, both the Harpster and the Visicaro cases. The article quotes a lawyer in David J. Stern’s office, Forrest McSurdy, who makes the outrageous statement that: Judges get in a whirl about technicalities because the courts are overwhelmed. […]

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More foreclosure affidavit problems—Florida Default Law Group admits its affidavits are inadmissible

April 16, 2010

Last week, we learned that many foreclosure cases have been granted based on inadmissible “Affidavits of Indebtedness” and falsified assignment documents. This week, some of the foreclosure mill lawyers pushing this fake paper have realized they’ve backed themselves into a corner. [PDF] MR. OSBORNE: It appears that our affidavits will be — will need to […]

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Obama foreclosure relief plan falls flat, says Congress.

April 14, 2010
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Here’s something most of you already know: federal government programs designed to help homeowners stave off foreclosure just aren’t working. A Congressional Oversight Panel investigating foreclosure relief programs found that the programs are almost universally disappointing: Only 1 in 6 homeowners in foreclosure crisis have been helped. Only one million families will lower their payments […]

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Why this Pinellas judge may never admit another foreclosure affidavit

April 12, 2010
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Foreclosure should almost never be granted by summary judgment. That’s what I believe, and that’s what most of the lawyers who defend foreclosures in Florida believe. Now, it looks like there’s at least one judge who is starting to think that way too. Before I share with you why this judge may never again grant […]

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Forged foreclosure filings by David J. Stern anger Pasco judge

April 7, 2010

Foreclosure plaintiff submits faked assignment documents in Pasco case Imagine you’ve been sued for foreclosure. Now, imagine the plaintiff submits, as evidence, a bunch of falsified documents to establish its right to foreclose. That could never happen, right? Wrong. It did, and Pasco Judge Lynn Tepper found out and would not stand for it, in […]

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Foreclosure lawsuits are built on lies: Shapiro & Fishman admits foreclosure claims cannot be verified

March 25, 2010

New foreclosure lawsuit rules require plaintiffs’ mills to tell the truth -and boy, are they mad! On February 11, the Florida Supreme Court amended the rules of foreclosure proceedings in a radical way: they want someone to swear that the allegations in the complaint are actually true. (Buncha bomb-throwers, aren’t they?) The amended rule says: […]

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MERS (What’s in your mortgage?)

March 18, 2010

The MERS Conveyance The heart of your mortgage – the most important clause in the entire document – is the “Transfer of Rights in the Property” clause. This is the language that creates the lender’s security interest backing the loan – it’s the sentence that allows them to foreclose if the borrower doesn’t pay. But […]

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