will thousands of foreclosures be voided because non-lawyers prosecuted them?

[Hannah Bell]

If you though robo signing was bad, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

The website 4ClosureFraud presents the gory details of a potential major new front in the foreclosure mess. A Pennsylvania foreclosure mill, Goldbeck McCafferty & McKeever, is accused by Patrick Loughren of allowing non-attorneys to file and prosecute foreclosures. A DailyFinance story gives the overview:

"Two Pennsylvania cases, one state and one federal, have exposed new types of document problems in foreclosure cases. One of the cases has potentially transformative consequences for thousands of troubled Pennsylvania homeowners. At the center of each is the same law firm: Goldbeck McCafferty & McKeever (GMM)… Loughren is suing because all three named partners of GMM, Joseph Goldbeck, Gary McCafferty and Michael McKeever, have admitted under oath — during depositions last September and in a separate case in December 2009 — that no attorney ever read the filings. The partners made clear that the practice has gone on for the past several years."

If Loughren prevails, this case will prove to be vastly more significant than robo-signing.

Robo signing, while a fraud on the court, does not necessarily invalidate the underlying legal action...The practice of law by non-lawyers is a far more serious matter. In Pennsylvania it is a crime. In the case against GMM and its apparently unsupervised paralegals, the plaintiff is seeking disgorgement of falsely billed “attorney’s fees”...But even more important, the lack of attorney involvement would render the foreclosures void....

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/

[druidity33]

1. I hope so. nt.

[blindpig]

2. k&r