The much-praised and long-awaited film “99 Homes” opens in six cities October 2, 2015 and nationally on October 9, 2015. The film is a fast-paced thriller that takes a hard look at the brutal reality of the foreclosure crisis. Audiences and critics have praised the film, particularly the performances of Andrew Garfield, Michael Shannon and Laura Dern, and the writing and direction of Ramin Bahrani.

via 99 Abandoned Homes | The Housing Justice Foundation.

There is a crisis that seriously impacts the integrity of the judicial system. And no, I’m not talking about the way the courts all across this state have set out, openly antagonistic to the interests of consumers as we’ve all experienced for years in the foreclosure process. And no, I’m not talking about broom closets  …

Source: Crisis in Florida Courts: (It’s not the unfairness of foreclosure) It’s Judges Wearing Colored Robes!

(Reuters) – Bank of America Corp is planning “a couple of hundred” job cuts at its global banking and markets unit, the Wall Street Journal reported.

What happened to all the homes foreclosed on when the housing bubble burst? Millions of people lost their homes and most of their life savings when the value of their homes plummeted during the most recent financial collapse. Many found they could not keep up with mortgage payments, either because they lost their jobs during the recession or because they were overextended financially for some other reason. Some would say many never should have been offered the loans in the first place. The fact remains that many people went from pursuing the “American Dream” of home ownership to struggling just to keep a roof over their heads by renting in a very short span of time.

The banks lost tons of money on loans that would never be paid in full, but they did have something very tangible in place of the money – the property. The real estate still…

What else is new…

Law360, Los Angeles (September 23, 2015, 11:01 PM ET) — A Florida federal jury found on Wednesday that Ocwen Loan Servicing Inc. violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by making 218 unauthorized calls to a woman’s cellphone in an alleged attempt to collect a mortgage loan debt that had been discharged in bankruptcy.
The jury unanimously decided on the third day of trial that Ocwen willfully or knowingly violated the TCPA by making the calls with an automatic dialing system to Rolena Drew. Ocwen allegedly called Drew’s cellphone multiple times per day and on back-to-back days.

The plaintiff claimed the roughly $92,500 delinquent debt that Ocwen was trying to collect had previously been discharged in Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Ocwen claimed it hadn’t known the debt had been discharged and would have handled the matter differently had it known.

Read on.

Ice Legal, the law firm known for its dedication to consumer advocacy, is excited to let you know that its ground-breaking community hub for legal self-help, LegalYou, is nearly here – we will be going live in just a few short months.

via LegalYou: Huge Announcement and a Favor | Foreclosure Fraud – Fighting Foreclosure Fraud by Sharing the Knowledge.

Chain of Title is the dramatic true story of how, in the depths of the Great Recession, a nurse, a car dealership worker, and a forensic expert helped uncover the largest consumer crime in American history—a scandal that implicated dozens of major executives on Wall Street. They called it foreclosure fraud: millions of families were kicked out of their homes based on false evidence by mortgage companies that had no legal right to foreclose. Dayen, a contributing writer to Salon and a weekly columnist for the Fiscal Times, recounts how these three ordinary Floridians challenged the most powerful institutions in America armed only with the truth. According to Dayen’s editor, New Press editorial director Carl Bromley, “Chain of Title is a remarkable work of narrative nonfiction that tells the story of regular Americans who decide to fight rather than fold before Wall Street. Recalling the humanism of Studs…

1. Over 98,000 “bad” mortgages have been sold to investors through a government program since 2010.

2. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) sells mortgages to investors at a steep discount — at times as little as 41 percent of the mortgages’ collective value.

3. Homeowners typically aren’t informed when their mortgages are sold. This prevents them from advocating for better terms, which they’re entitled to under Federal Housing Administration protection.

4. Wall Street investors pay only two-thirds* of the full mortgage value when they buy mortgages from the government (*median price).

5. Homeowners aren’t so lucky: they must pay about 124 percent* of the property value to keep their homes(*median price).

Read on.

Living the thug life….

The sale of a luxury ranch owned by former Lehman Brothers Chief Executive Officer Dick Fuld just set a new record for the most expensive property ever sold via auction, according to a report from CNBC.

Fuld’s ranch, a 71-acre spread called Big Wood River Estate, has 11 bedrooms between three houses and comes with 2,100 feet of riverfront land.  The ranch is located in Sun Valley, Idaho.

In observance of the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, my office will be closed Wednesday, September 23. The following article was scheduled in advance:

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See Anh N. Tran, et al. v. Bank of New York SCOTUS Certiorari_SRCH

READ THE ENTIRE BRIEF SLOWLY AND STUDY IT.

I think we have another case here where the pen of Justice Scalia (if they grant the writ and hear the case) will be dripping with sarcasm , just like we saw in Jesinoski. The New York Law says that the “transfer” to the REMIC Trust is void if it violates the terms of the Pooling and Servicing Agreement. The problem for the banks is that they MUST rely on the PSA in order to give standing to their trustee and servicer. If the trust does not have the loan, then the trustee has no authority over the loan and neither does the servicer…