Pending further disciplinary action, the State Bar of California suspended the right to practice of Michael Pines, whose exploits had garnered considerable press attention [Amanda Bronstad, NLJ; earlier here and here]
Posts Tagged ‘mortgages’
Taxpayer-funded entitlement to foreclosure defense?
March 3 roundup
- EU imposes unisex insurance rates [BBC, Wright]
- Law blog on the offense? TechnoLawyer asserts trademark claim against Lawyerist over “Small Law” [Lawyerist]
- “Pro-business Supreme Court” meme strikes out yet again as SCOTUS backs “cat’s-paw” bias suit theory by 8-0-2 margin [Josh Blackman, Schwartz, Fox; Lithwick locus classicus]
- Subprime CDO manager sues financial writer Michael Lewis over statements in his book The Big Short [AW, Salmon, Kennerly]
- Police in Surrey, England, deny advising garden shed owners not to use wire mesh against burglars [Volokh, earlier]
- Patterns of intimidation: protesters swarm Speaker Boehner’s private residence [Hollingsworth, Examiner] Unions fighting Wal-Mart in NYC plan actions at board members’ homes [Stoll] Report: GOP lawmakers in Wisconsin fear for personal safety [Nordlinger, NRO] White House pushing street protests [Welch, Nordlinger] Age of Civility short lived [Badger Blogger, Althouse, Sullivan]
- In clash with trial lawyers, Cuomo proposes pain and suffering limits in med-mal suits [NYDN, more: NYT] “Bloomberg looks to Texas for ideas on changing medical malpractice laws” [City Hall News]
- Hey, should we seize his drum set? Infuriating video on cop raids and forfeiture laws [Institute for Justice, Michigan]
February 25 roundup
- “Lawyer held in contempt for advising clients to retake foreclosed home” [Ventura County Star, earlier]
- Some perspective on Wisconsin Gov. Walker’s plans: about half the states curtail some or all public-sector unionism [Barro]
- Guy who sued over Jimmy Carter book offers his side of story [Turley, earlier]
- “Disbarment recommended for litigator Chesley over fen-phen fees” [NLJ, PoL, previously on scandal] Kenneth Feinberg affidavit in case draws scrutiny [Steele/LEF, Frank/PoL]
- Mississippi: “Minor, 2 ex-judges disbarred by state Supreme Court” [Sun-Herald, related on scheduled resentencing, earlier]
- “AIG Ended Up Having To Pay Millions For the Duke Lacrosse Stripper Lawsuit” [Business Insider, earlier]
- Labor Department hotline to put workers in touch with private lawyers [Fox Biz, Wood/PoL]
- Underage man on hook for child support to older woman [seven years ago on Overlawyered]
“Lawyer advises foreclosed clients to break back into their homes”
Attorney Michael Pines “admits to breaking into homes at least half a dozen times… leaving the clients [most famously baseball legend Lenny Dykstra] to squat in their homes while he defends their legal right to possession.” More in an L.A. Times profile:
Although Pines advises his clients not to pay their lenders, he wants to be paid.
“I tell my clients that if you’re living in a house for free, you should be able to afford to pay a lawyer,” Pines said, adding that he usually charges an hourly rate of $650.
January 4 roundup
- Report: dead woman’s name robo-signed onto thousands of collection documents [Business Insider] Or was it? [comment, Fredrickson/Collections and Credit Risk (alleging that living daughter shares name of deceased mother)] “Are faked attorney signatures the ‘next huge issue’ in the foreclosure scandal?” [Renee Knake, Legal Ethics Forum]
- “Major Verdict Threatens to Bankrupt Maker of Exercise Equipment” [Laura Simons, Abnormal Use]
- Decline in competitiveness of U.S. capital markets owes much to legal and regulatory developments [Bainbridge, related]
- Deadly Choices, The Panic Virus: Dr. Paul Offit and Seth Mnookin have new books out on vaccine controversy [Orac]
- “No one’s trying to get rich off this,” says lawyer planning suit on behalf of A train subway riders stranded during NYC blizzard [NY Daily News]
- Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna continues to seek solutions to state’s uniquely exposed litigation position, including fix of joint and several liability [Seattle Times, background here and here]
- ABA Blawg 100 picks — and a critique;
- Alabama bar orders lawyer’s law license suspended, but in the mean time he’s been elected judge [four years ago on Overlawyered]
“Niche Lawyers Spawned Housing Fracas”
November 12 roundup
- By reader acclaim: “Rules in Chandler restrooms: Don’t drink from toilets” [Arizona Republic]
- Arbitration and class actions before the Supreme Court: “Misconceptions about Concepcion” [Andrew Trask]
- County commissioner candidate sues county employees, rival over election flyer [Whidbey Island, Wash. News-Times]
- Fannie’s Tammany: MacLean, Nocera on the politicized world of the mortgage GSEs [Tabarrok]
- $56 million obstetrics verdict against Westchester County, N.Y. hospital [Hochfelder]
- Legal Ethics Forum is looking for guest bloggers;
- New Federalist Society white papers on Ohio and North Carolina supreme courts;
- “When Art Imitates Life: Suing for Defamation in Fiction” [Jane Kleiner, Citizen Media Law]
“Foreclosure Lawyers Put Second Mortgages on Clients’ Homes”
That’s the way to help ’em out!
While such an approach is sometimes used in commercial litigation, this is a first for consumer cases, said Lester Brickman, a professor at Cardozo Law School in New York.
“For a lawyer to supplement or replace the banks as a long-term mortgage creditor of homeowners leaves me a little queasy,” said Mr. Brickman, an expert on contingency fees. “It’s an invitation for the public to say, ‘There go the lawyers again.’ ”
OK, we’ll say it: There go the lawyers again. [New York Times via Ribstein/TotM and Knake/LEF]
Foreclosures on the rocks
Lawyers profited handsomely from devising the foreclosure-mill model, and now will profit handsomely from exposing its flaws, as Larry Ribstein notes. More: Arnold Kling (“If you say that ‘the law is the law’ and ‘rules must be enforced as written,’ that can be a consistent position and I can respect you for it. But then don’t turn around and say that we should empower mortgage counselors to rewrite people’s loans.”) Stephen Bainbridge (prospective lawsuit wave over packaging of mortgages for investors “show the extent to which mass financial torts now adversely affect American business.”)
Yet more: “Lawsuit wave could hurt housing market: FDIC chief” [AP/WaPo]; the elusive search for villains [Holman Jenkins, WSJ]