Judges Berate Bank Lawyers in Foreclosures

[groovedaddy]

With judges looking ever more critically at home foreclosures, they are reaching beyond the bankers to heap some of their most scorching criticism on the lawyers.

In numerous opinions, judges have accused lawyers of processing shoddy or even fabricated paperwork in foreclosure actions when representing the banks.

Judge Arthur M. Schack of New York State Supreme Court in Brooklyn has taken aim at an upstate lawyer, Steven J. Baum, referring to one filing as “incredible, outrageous, ludicrous and disingenuous.”

But New York judges are also trying to take the lead in fixing the mortgage mess by leaning on the lawyers. In November, a judge ordered Mr. Baum’s firm to pay nearly $20,000 in fines and costs related to papers that he said contained numerous “falsities.” The judge, Scott Fairgrieve of Nassau County District Court, wrote that “swearing to false statements reflects poorly on the profession as a whole.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/business/11lawyers.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha25

[DirkGently]

1. Shoddy lawyering is part of the problem. But shoddy banking is most of it.

[varkam]

2. Can't lawyers that make filings that contain falsities be reported to the state bar?