Firm Obtains $12,695.00 Judgment against Wells Fargo

 

After winning yet another foreclosure action against Wells Fargo and their counsel, Florida Default Law Group, foreclosure defense attorney Richard Shuster has obtained a judgment for attorney’s fees and costs in the amount of $12,695.00.  Homeowners should understand that hiring foreclosure attorneys who actually win cases as opposed to merely trying to slow a bank’s case down makes good financial sense.  In a foreclosure case, when the bank or loan servicer loses the case the bank has to pay the homeowner’s attorney’s fees.  Money from the judgment against Wells Fargo will reimburse legal expenses previously paid by the firm’s client. 

Fighting cases to win, rather than to lose slowly requires more time and effort on the attorney’s part.  Hiring a firm that attempts to win cases might cost a little more in the beginning but in cases where the homeowner wins their case and recovers fees from the bank and in many cases settled under favorable terms the investment in a sophisticated foreclosure defense pays off for the homeowner. 

To review a redacted copy of the final judgment for attorney’s fees please click the link below.

Redacted Judgment Link

About Shuster & Saben:  Shuster and Saben, LLC knows the difference between real foreclosure defense and knee jerk stalling.  Savvy homeowners in foreclosure who want more than a cookie cutter foreclosure delay can consult with one of our attorney’s for free.  Since we regularly go to court on our client’s cases, we don’t take cases in Tampa or the Panhandle that are beyond the reach of our firms offices.  We do accept cases from Miami to Jacksonville on the east coast and in Orange, Seminole, Collier and Lee counties.  We know who the top foreclosure lawyers are in parts of the state where we do not practice and gladly make referrals.  Thanks for reading our blog.  We would love to put your case in a future post.   

Judge Bailey to Foreclosure Lawyers: Wake Up and Smell the Coffee!

Transcript Miami

I believe the legal term is "a righteous arse-kicking."

(Thanks to Matt Weidner for posting).

Lawsuit Bots?

There are plenty of ways to make money practicing law, but is this what you want to say you did with your law degree:

Attorneys who defend homeowners against foreclosures say they have trouble contacting Florida Default lawyers.

"They're just extremely nonresponsive in the bankruptcy arena," said Patrick Smith, a Tampa bankruptcy lawyer who occasionally deals with Florida Default. "I don't think they're structured to put too much time into any one case."

In Sarasota County, Lee Haworth, chief judge in the state's 12th Judicial Circuit, got fed up when his fellow judges had to wait weeks for a returned call from a foreclosure firm, he said.

Haworth started noticing a trend: Foreclosure law firms would start a foreclosure lawsuit against a homeowner but push it to the back burner if complications arose. Meanwhile, the stalled cases began to languish in Sarasota and Bradenton courts. Foreclosure mills seemed to think pursuing such cases was too much trouble for the $1,200 fee, he said.

Haworth is trying to clear up the backlog. Florida Default is one of the major players in Sarasota County, but the judge would not speak about specific foreclosure mills.

John Olson, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge in Fort Lauderdale, had no problem taking Florida Default and a big client, Wells Fargo, to task. After the firm made errors in up to 50 cases in court, Olson called out the firm in October 2008 in a strongly worded opinion.

Florida Default made the errors when an employee pulled information from the wrong computer screen, according to court documents.

Florida Default and Wells Fargo "have engaged in the systematic process of churning out unrefined and unexamined form pleadings, instead of producing and filing carefully considered legal papers," Olson wrote.

Winemiller, the Sarasota retiree, faced foreclosure this year when she fell behind on her mortgage payments. She was negotiating to pay off her mortgage with Wells Fargo with a reverse mortgage, but the process got delayed. Wells Fargo filed for foreclosure in April.

What upset her was Florida Default's $4,004 charge for process service. Her case required the delivery of numerous documents to her family and the family of a friend with whom she owned the house. But when pressed to explain the fees, Florida Default could substantiate about $3,200 in charges, said her lawyer, Elizabeth Boyle of Gulfcoast Legal Services.

"It took setting a court hearing and getting to the eve of the hearing to get (Florida Default) to address the request for an accounting," Boyle said.

Florida Default eventually refunded Winemiller about $1,500, Winemiller said.

That building just screams "I want to work here."

Florida Default's website is here and it looks like they are hiring.

Shuster & Saben files suit against Florida Default Law Group

Shuster & Saben, LLC has filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Miami-Dade county homeowner against the Florida Default Law Group. The lawsuit alleges that the Florida Default Law Group violated the homeowners rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). The lawsuit was filed in county court for Miami-Dade County. This case is believed to be the first lawsuit filed against Florida Default Law Group filed in a Miami-Dade county court. The basis of the lawsuit is the practice of Florida Default Group of sending letters to homeowner, prior to foreclosure litigation, in envelopes bearing the words “Florida Default Law Group, P.L.” The lawsuit alleges this practice violates the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act because the firm name “Florida Default Law Group” identifies that the firm is a debt collector. One of the purposes of the FDCPA is to protect the privacy interests of debtors by making collection companies send bill collection letters in envelopes that do not identify the company as a bill collector.

Shuster & Saben anticipates filing additional lawsuits on behalf of injured consumers in Dade, Broward, Collier, Palm Beach, St. Lucie and Brevard counties. Shuster & Saben's handling of this case is on a pure contingency (no recovery - no fee) basis. For more information about Shuster & Saben, please see our website: www.attorneyforeclosuredefense.com