We've noted that New York has become a hot bed of judicial activity when it comes to the foreclosure fiasco. By some estimates, local judges were rejecting up to 50 percent of all foreclosure attempts, usually for shoddy paperwork. JPMorgan Chase now requires its processors to separately process foreclosures in the three counties near New York City, aware that the bar is higher.

Judges have taken to excoriating the lawyers representing banks and servicers in the area as well. The New York Times notes the case of a New York State Supreme Court in Brooklyn who called out one upstate lawyer, Steven J. Baum, as "incredible, outrageous, ludicrous and disingenuous." Another judge ordered his firm to pay nearly $20,000 in fines and costs related to documentation that was riddled with numerous "falsities." All of this makes Baum the David Stern of New York.

To the layman, it seems like a no-brainer that lawyers for foreclosing banks and servicers be required to file accurate and legally sound papers on behalf of their clients. The laymen would assume such vouching is part of the job--to keep their clients from getting in trouble in court.

But foreclosure attorneys are fighting the efforts of judges in New York and Florida that would force them to attest to the accuracy of bank documents. They do not want to be held accountable for bank representations. "They (foreclosure lawyers) are relying on a client, or the client's employees, to provide the information on which they are basing the documents," explains one.

But if a lawyer's not going to ask his own client to provide accurate info for a court proceeding, who will?

For more:
- here's the article

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