Seminole County Foreclosure Attorney & Short Sale Realtor News: Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Law Firm of David J. Stern for Allegedly Fraudulent Mortgage Assignments

In recent news from your Seminole County foreclosure attorney and Seminole County short sale realtor, a homeowner in Oakland Park has filed a class action lawsuit in U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, alleging that the foreclosure mill law firm of David J. Stern submitted fraudulent foreclosure documents showing mortgage assignments in foreclosure lawsuits. Mr. Stern’s foreclosure law firm reportedly files thousands of foreclosure lawsuits in the State of Florida each month, including Seminole County foreclosures. Also named in the lawsuit is the Mortgage Electronic Registration Service Corp. The private company, known as MERS, was created by banks in 1995 to keep mortgage ownership information electronically and eliminate paper documents. The lawsuit claims that Mr. Stern’s law firm and MERS generated fraudulent mortgage assignments in foreclosure lawsuits in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which was originally implemented to combat organized crime.

An assignment of mortgage is very important in modern foreclosure litigation. Today’s mortgage loans have typically been sold and re-sold many times over so that it is often difficult to tell who owns the mortgage note, as discussed in this blog post aboutmortgage assignments in foreclosure lawsuits. Only the owner of the note has standing to file a foreclosure suit involving the note. When a lender cannot otherwise come up with documentation showing ownership of the note, the Stern law firm (and many other law firms) would generate an assignment signed by an employee of the Stern law firm (or another law firm) instead of a representative of the lender. As the complaint stated:

“The assignments were meaningless shells designed to pull the wool over the eyes of the judiciary and ease the burden upon the unknown real parties of interest.”

Additionally, the plaintiff’s lawyer stated:

“There really is no proper plaintiff to sue and foreclose and that’s what this charade is designed to cover,” said Fort Lauderdale Attorney Kenneth Eric Trent, who is seeking class action status and filed the suit on behalf of Oakland Park resident Ignacio Damian Figueroa. “There is no real holder of the note and the mortgage anymore because they broke it up and sold it to 10, 12, 20 people.”

So once again, if you are sued for foreclosure, tell the lender to SHOW ME THE NOTE!!