Legal News

Florida Probing Law Firm in Foreclosures

By (Daily Bar news)

The Florida attorney general's office is investigating possible misconduct by a large law firm that files foreclosures for banks, according to a posting on its Web site.

The Web site said the office is looking at whether Florida Default Law Group, based in Tampa, was involved in "fabricating and/or presenting false and misleading documents in foreclosure cases." Mortgage documents that are used to prove a bank has a right to foreclose "have later been shown to be legally inadequate and/or insufficient," the Web site said.

A spokeswoman for Florida Default declined to comment. Ryan Wiggins, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Bill McCollum, said the investigation began last fall.

The civil probe comes as some judges and federal prosecutors in Florida are paying close attention to how banks?and so-called foreclosure-mill law firms that work for banks?are attempting to take control of homes from borrowers in default. Judges across the country have chastised banks and their attorneys for attempting to seize properties they can't prove they own.

Last month, a Florida judge said that a mortgage document filed by a bank in a foreclosure case was part of an "intentional effort to mislead" the court.

Full post as published by Daily Bar News on May 10, 2010 (boomark / email).