Robo-Litigation
Dustin A. Zacks
King, Nieves & Zacks PLLC
Cleveland State Law Review, Vol. 60, No. 4, p. 867, 2013
Abstract:
The recent housing crisis increased demand for attorneys to process foreclosures through state courts. This increase in demand was coupled with a desire for the fastest and cheapest legal services available. As a result, large foreclosure firms designed to handle an enormous number of foreclosure cases quickly and inexpensively evolved and flourished. During their ascendancy, these firms consistently generated complaints about their conduct, including questions about their ethical decision-making and about the veracity of the pleadings and documents they filed. Scholarly literature on the housing crisis, however, is largely devoid of commentary on ethical issues related to increased foreclosures.
This Article tracks the rise and fall of several notorious high volume foreclosure firms and examines the numerous instances of serious misconduct their attorneys and paralegals perpetrated. The Article accordingly examines the curiously muted reaction from state bar associations, judges, and state legislators.
“The responsibility that they expected people to have was above and beyond what a human being could actually do as far as case loads.”
—Tammie Mae Kapusta, former paralegal for foreclosure law firm1
~
“You are acting as a robot for a plaintiff who is not even giving you the information you need to file a proper foreclosure. Now, if you choose to do that, you do that at your peril before this Court.”
—Judge Maxine Cohen Lando2
[ipaper docId=133742435 access_key=key-me7arpga6parydq2qbq height=600 width=600 /]
This article should make the Florida bar (no caps from me–it doesn’t deserve them) hang its head in shame, but I have long understood that the Florida bar has no sense of shame, honor, dignity, or any good, solid, Biblically based characteristic.
Florida is the epicenter of foreclosure fraud, and yet the perpetrators walk around with their licenses intact. It’s not a big jump from seeing attorneys with no ethics to having judges and court employees gunned down (as witnessed recently in Texas)–it’s because of the lack of respect for authority, a lack of respect that grows and grows. Who respects David J. Stern or others like him? Eric Appel, now working for LPS, used to work for Ben Ezra-Katz…do you think his sojourn at Ben Ezra-Katz is listed on his resume on LinkedIn? No, no it’s not.
Me, I think there’s a direct relationship between some kid with his pants around his knees coming in to court about a speeding ticket and the Florida bar’s refusal to police its own. We turn our noses up at the kid with his underswear hanging out, but he’s not the only one with no clothes.