Now here's the problem -- there are a lot of services out there that have seized upon the fraud in securitization, origination and other frauds (and there are a lot of them!) to try to sell you various services -- from "audits" to "foreclosure defense" and more.
I'm in contact with a fair number of lawyers in this state on a regular basis, including some who are associates of mine locally. I can't speak to the results elsewhere but I can tell you this -- irrespective of the merits the judges here locally in this county typically will refuse to allow into hearings any sort of alleged evidence on the provenance of the note, transfers and similar things.
In other words if you buy something but it's not admitted into evidence and doesn't lead to something that is you wasted your money.
In addition the law says that many of these schemes are per-se illegal in Florida.
Now Matt (a real lawyer) says, amplifying my point:
I get variations of the loan audit scam in my office nearly every single day. Hapless consumers are either directly approached by companies and people all the time. Here’s the rap: The company or expert will audit their loan, show them how the bank committed fraud or their documents are bad or whatever and the homeowner can use that information to get a free house….for a small upfront fee of several thousand dollars…and maybe a small monthly fee if the mark can swing it.
ANY REPRESENTATIONS LIKE THIS ARE A VIOLATION OF STATE AND FEDERAL LAW!
And yet, the proliferation of these scams is mind blowing. Homeowers are pounced on by cold callers and emails and direct mail and people coming directly to their door as soon as a foreclosure lawsuit is filed. Some are pounded on just as soon as they miss a few payments….these consumers are placed on widely available lists that are purchased by the securitization scam companies and the victims are pounded on relentlessly.
I challenge any of the firms and individuals selling these services to show me the following:
- Case number(s) in which your work product have been admitted as evidence. Once it's used in a court case your success in getting into court is public knowledge. So let's see it. If you have actually gotten your investigatory product into court and it's been successfully used there's a record of it and it's public.
- The court(s) where your representatives, investigators or others involved have been admitted into evidence as experts and who offered testimony as experts. Again, this is public record -- if it exists.
- Case number(s) in which you accomplished either of the above and in addition won. After all the only thing the person filing a suit (or defending a suit) cares about is winning! The rest is arm-waving. If you have succeeded then let's see the case numbers and courts where it happened so we can verify it.
When I posted this the last time around what I heard was...... crickets!
And it appears that Matt has also heard crickets.
My position is simply this: If you have a track record then let's see it. If you don't then stop leading people to believe you have something valuable to sell them, because on an objective basis you either can't or won't back up your claims.
I have long held that there's plenty of fraud to go around in mortgage origination and securitization, from notes not transferred to loans sold more than once to various other irregularities, and that they probably include your mortgage.
But none of this means a thing as a matter of law unless you can get your claimed evidence into a courtroom, have it heard and get a judgment. Whether the inability to do so is due to judges being stupid, obtuse or actively corrupt is immaterial to the outcome. And what I keep hearing from real lawyers trying real cases is that judges will not permit this evidence into the record irrespective of what it suggests or even proves! Without being able to get the evidence into the record its value is zero!
Any such firm or individual selling such services should be able to produce a list of case numbers as long as your arm where they have been admitted as experts, where their testimony and documentation has been accepted into the record and where the promised or expected results have been obtained, whether it's a "quiet title" or a dismissal with prejudice of the foreclosure that was pending.
If that's not willingly, publicly and prominently put forward with the solicitation I stand by my belief that the odds are overwhelming that you're going to wind up buying nothing.
