New York’s largest foreclosure firm, which once handled thousands of cases in the Lower Hudson Valley, will officially close Monday, but it has left a trail of questions and frustrated property owners caught in legal limbo.
The Steven J. Baum PC law firm, based in Amherst, N.Y., originally was retained for more than 600 foreclosure cases that remain active in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam. In all, Baum’s firm has handled more than 4,000 cases in the three-county region since 1999, court records show.
But last year, the firm announced its official closing, scheduled for Feb. 20, after it came under scrutiny from state and federal agencies for “robo-signing,” or mass producing foreclosure documents without verifying whether they were accurate.
You have to read Susan T. Martin’s article in the St. Pete Times…. She was one of the very first who exposed this foreclosure fraud way back and one who’s not afraid to say the f word… ” Fraudulent”.
Here’s a piece off the St. Pete Times:
In a letter dated March 4, Stern notified McGrady and other chief judges that as of March 31 the firm will end its involvement in all 100,000 foreclosure cases statewide in which it is still listed as attorney of record. Bank of America and other Stern clients jettisoned the firm last year because of its allegedly sloppy, fraudulent practices but in many cases have yet to hire anyone to replace him.
“It’s just put the brakes on being able to move forward in these thousands of cases we have, and so they either get counsel or get rid of the case,” McGrady said.
In his letter to the judges, Stern acknowledged that his firm is basically out of business.
“We have been forced to drastically reduce our attorney and paralegal staff to the point where we no longer have the financial or personnel resources to continue to file motions to withdraw in the tens of thousand of cases that we still remain as counsel of record,” he wrote. “Therefore it is with great regret that we will be ceasing the servicing of clients” by month’s end.
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