Fast forward it’s getting much worse! Where are our rights heading??
ARTICLE: Lassiter Notwithstanding: The Right to Counsel in Foreclosure Actions
January / February, 2010
43 Clearinghouse Rev. 448
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Excerpt
The shortage of legal assistance during this crush of “foreclosure actions” compounds the due process concerns: no state provides a statutory right to counsel in any foreclosure proceedings, and consequently more than half of foreclosed homeowners are handling their cases without counsel. 4 Yet having an attorney is critical: while even a delinquent borrower may have a variety of options (e.g., mediation, modification, relief under federal law, various state-law claims and defenses) only an attorney can evaluate the options properly and advise the homeowner as to the most efficacious strategy.
Establishing a Fourteenth Amendment right to counsel in foreclosure actions requires an advocate to contend with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Lassiter v. Department of Social Services. 5 Where there is no threat to “physical liberty,” by which the Court meant incarceration, …
Clearinghouse Review: Journal of Poverty Law and Policy
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