Posted on 12 December 2010. Tags: ACLU, American Home Mortgage Servicing, ameriquest, appeals courts, barry ritholtz, Bryan Bly, Christopher Forrest, Circuit Judge Rick DeFuria, citi residential, CitiGroup, Crystal Moore, deposition, deutsche bank, DEUTSCHE BANK NATIONAL TRUST, Dhurata Doko, first amendment, foreclosure fraud, green tree servicing, jpmorgan chase, matt weidner, MERS, Met Life Home Loans, MORTGAGE ELECTRONIC REGISTRATION SYSTEMS INC., nationwide title clearing, One West, option one, pnc bank, Select Portfolio Servicing (SPS), suntrust, the big picture, transcript, video, Vilma Castro, wells fargo
The Big Picture
By Barry Ritholtz – December 11th, 2010, 8:08AM
Sometimes, the best defense is a good offense.
That seems to be the approach that notorious robo-signing firm Nationwide Title Clearing has taken in responding to some of its critics.
If you are unfamiliar with their name, you might recall earlier this Fall when depositions of several Nationwide robo-signers employees went viral on YouTube (We mentioned these here and here).
This, amongst other perceived sleights has upset Nationwide Title, who has sued a St. Petersburg foreclosure defense lawyer, Matthew Weidner, for alleged libel and slander.
This is likely to be a terrible, terrible idea.
For those of you who are not attorneys, I need to point out a few things out about Libel and Slander laws in the United States. These are Constitutional issues, as the First Amendment protects speech, opinion, arguments, viewpoints, etc. In these cases, (capital “T”) Truth is an absolute defense. So if any defendant can demonstrate that the damaging statements were indeed, accurate, they win.
This case turns on the bizarre claim that the term robo-signer so libels the plaintiffs that they are entitled to damages. Given that Truth is a defense, the defendant will prevail if they can demonstrate Nationwide’s approach was robotic. Not literally machines doing the work, but any showing of assembly line manufacturing, for profit, of a streamlined document production that failed to review the documents, evaluate them, analyze the contents should qualify.
Here’s where things get very very interesting: In civil litigation, the discovery process provides lots of opportunities for a defendant to gather information related to the accusations to prove they are true. This is a very broad standard, and it means nearly anything relevant is fair game. Depositions of senior executives, the firm’s accounting and records, balance sheets, low level employees are all legitimate aspects of pre-trial discovery.
Why any private firm would subject themselves to this degree of scrutiny is quite baffling to me.

© 2010-19 FORECLOSURE FRAUD | by DinSFLA. All rights reserved.
Posted in STOP FORECLOSURE FRAUD
Posted on 10 December 2010. Tags: ACLU, American Home Mortgage Servicing, ameriquest, appeals courts, Bryan Bly, Christopher Forrest, Circuit Judge Rick DeFuria, citi residential, CitiGroup, Crystal Moore, deposition, deutsche bank, DEUTSCHE BANK NATIONAL TRUST, Dhurata Doko, first amendment, foreclosure fraud, green tree servicing, jpmorgan chase, MERS, Met Life Home Loans, MORTGAGE ELECTRONIC REGISTRATION SYSTEMS INC., nationwide title clearing, One West, option one, pnc bank, Select Portfolio Servicing (SPS), suntrust, transcript, video, Vilma Castro, wells fargo
Links will return pending ACLU’s victory…
NATIONWIDE TITLE CLEARING VIDEO DEPOSITIONS
VIDEO DEPOSITION OF NATIONWIDE TITLE CLEARING BRYAN BLY
SFF EXCLUSIVE: VIDEO DEPOSITION OF NATIONWIDE TITLE CRYSTAL MOORE
VIDEO DEPOSITION OF NATIONWIDE TITLE CLEARING DHURATA DOKO
And FULL DEPOSITION TRANSCRIPT OF NATIONWIDE TITLE CLEARING ERICA LANCE BRYAN BLY
Continue below to ACLU’s reply below…
According to a Certification filed by NTC’s counsel, on November 17, 2010, the trial court contacted via e-mail and requested that a one-hour hearing be set on Friday, November 19th, to hear the pending motions. App. Tab 10. NTC’s counsel learned that Mr. Forrest was traveling outside of the country and would not return until the following Monday, November 22nd. Id. As NTC’s counsel explained: …
[ipaper docId=45040126 access_key=key-12ouatg25xpw8qk1ja9k height=600 width=600 /]
© 2010-19 FORECLOSURE FRAUD | by DinSFLA. All rights reserved.
Posted in STOP FORECLOSURE FRAUD
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