Florida’s Capital really is one of the prettiest buildings in this state.  Set on a huge hill, you can see it for miles around when you come driving in from any direction.  The response to calls for action from attorneys and homeowners who are coming to Tallahassee on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 has been phenomenal.  Given our great success this week, we’re all meeting in Tallahassee with a very good message to share…

 FLORIDIANS ? JUDGES!

God knows we might not always agree with our judges (and from an entirely personal perspective sometimes they can lay into you like a strict and angry parent), but the bottom line is if a Floridian’s home is going to be taken from them, we want to make sure an elected judge executes that powerful order.  We want our judges and courthouses respected.  That means funding them properly so they and their staff have the time and resources to examine cases and issues carefully.  We trust our judges to be responsive to this crisis and we want our legislators to give them the tools and the respect they need to craft the solutions.  We are also proud and grateful to the legislators because:

 FLORIDA LEGISLATORS CARE ABOUT HOMEOWNERS

FLORIDA LEGISLATORS LISTEN TO THEIR CONSTITUENTS
 

FLORIDA LEGISLATORS ARE COMMITTED TO FINDING FAIR AND HONEST SOLUTIONS TO THE FORECLOSURE CRISIS 

We will meet at 9:00 a.m. on the First Floor of the Capital, called the Plaza Level, just inside the doors between the chambers of the Florida House and Florida Senate right around the Great Seal of the State of Florida, shown  below:

What Can You Expect in Tallahassee? Expect to be blown away.  If you’ve never been to the Capital while legislature is in session, you cannot imagine how exciting and alive the place is.  Remember all the energy and enthusiasm of college pep rallys, Superbowl or World Series, multiply it ten times, then add to it the fact that this is all very, very serious business.  Billions of dollars are at stake and changes that affect Floridians forever are made every session.

Most times during session, the legislators are the stars, but when real people come up and do fulfill their obligations as citizens, NORMAL EVERYDAY FOLKS BECOME THE STARS! After we meet at the Great Seal at 9:00 a.m. we will travel to the Fourth Floor which is the “lobby” area between both chambers (now you know why they call it “lobbying”)…you’ll have a directory showing the floor and office number of your legislators and will fan out go to their offices.  They often won’t be in their offices, but you walk in, introduce yourself then take about two minutes to make your case to whomever is there.  If you’re lucky your representative will be there, if not take a few minutes to talk with staff….keep in mind that staff are very influential….even if your elected representative is not there….staff members are just as critical.  Write up your story and the reasons you’ve come to Tallahassee and hand them to staff/reporters/legislators.

 BE BRIEF

BE RESPECTFUL 

BE ENTHUSIASTIC 

BE THANKFUL  

THEN…..MOVE ON!

You can and should be prepared to make your point and move on in a few short moments….you may not convince whomever you’re talking to on the spot, but they will hear your message and respect you for understanding their time commitments and the stress they are under.  Remember, it feels like most legislators are on our side now, so please be very courteous and very grateful to them for listening to you so far….make a commitment to support them back in the district.  Ask to be put on their volunteer contact list so that they can call on you when they need help or attendance back in the district.

It will be a whirlwind, but after a few hours of walking the halls, you’ll want to sit in the public galleries of both the house and senate side to watch all the action taking place.  At some point during the day some discussion regarding foreclosure legislation will be taken up.  Hopefully these bad bills will be killed and what will happen is members from both houses will take official notice of the hundreds, (thousands?) of their constituents who are in the galleries…they will recognize you, commend you taking time to come up and support them and the process and they will make honest commitments to work with all of us after session ends to figure a way out of this mess. At some point in time, make sure you go to the top of the Capital and see the view from high above….as I said The Capital is set on a hill and the view from up there is just amazing.  Take it all in, look around…maybe stay over a night and take more of it in….there’s certainly lots of very interesting stuff to see.

Whatever your background, attorney, advocate, curious bystander…you will leave changed…probably inspired and hopeful~ 

As more and more depositions are being taken of robo signers and other witnesses who appear in foreclosure cases by signing documents, a troubling issue has emerged….conflict of interest by the foreclosure mills that are staying up day and night to push their garbage foreclosure cases through.

There are only two or three documents that must be filed by the Plaintiff in order to be granted foreclosure. These documents must be trustworthy if a court is to rely upon them to grant foreclosure and deprive a homeowner of possession of the home.  What we’ve found through deposition and discovery is that attorneys who work in the foreclosure mills are signing the key documents that allow their firms to prevail in their cases. This is a staggering violation of the rules of professional ethics, but this practice is apparently quite widespread with groups of attorneys in the mills routinely signing documents, especially assignments of mortgages, allegedly on behalf of MERS in particular.  Any document signed by an attorney working for the Plaintiff is ethically improper, but very serious conflict of interest questions are raised when an assignment transfers the first mortgage to the Plaintiff while at the same time, there is any sort of second mortgage and certainly when the Plaintiff lists MERS as a Defendant.

An Absolute Conflict of Interest Anytime A Second Mortgage Exists

MERS is listed as the “mortgagee” or “nominee” on virtually every mortgage that is currently subject to foreclosure.  As we know from depositions, whenever the Plaintiff’s law firm needs to show evidence that the named plaintiff has the right to foreclose a mortgage, either an attorney in the office creates this false assignment or they send instructions to a document mill where the false assignment is signed by a robo signer.  Title attorneys and attorneys with a real estate background dispute the validity of any assignment from MERS (see Kessler v. Landmark) because MERS simply does not have the authority to issue assignments.  Setting this argument aside for just a moment however, the problem with any party acting on instructions from the Plaintiff’s firm is that this party is an agent of the Plaintiff law firm…I cannot conceive of any litigation where it would be permissible for a law firm to instruct his client, “Here’s the evidence I need”, and that client would produce the “evidence” according to instruction and return to the attorney who submits this “evidence” to the court. And yet this happens in virtually every foreclosure across the country….but wait, I got sidetracked down one ethical minefield, when I started in another direction.

When MERS executes one questionable assignment of mortgage (all MERS assignments are questionable) for the first mortgage and there is also a second mortgage that must be foreclosed, Plaintiff’s firms are often not bothering to serve the holder of the second mortgage…all they’re bothering to do is get “service” for that second mortgage on MERS…problematic in any case, but especially problematic when the agent for MERs on either the first or the second mortgage are either an attorney working for the Plaintiff or an agent of the attorney.  What follows here is a discussion of some of the ethical issues posed by such practices, and then posted here is a Motion to Disqualify Counsel which Foreclosure Fraud Fighter Mark Stopa has recently been using with great results…bottom line is the Motion to Disqualify must be heard before any substantive issues are addressed, and the foreclosure mills never want these Motions to Disqualify to be heard by a judge…..if judges started hearing these arguments on a regular basis they may never get around to granting foreclosure…and now, directly from the Florida Bar Journal:

Under the Florida Rules of Professional Conduct,  an attorney generally must not act as advocate at a trial in which the  attorney is likely to be a necessary witness on behalf of the  client. 1 The purpose of the  rule is to prevent evils that arise when a lawyer dons the hat of both  advocate and witness for his own client, as such dual role can  prejudice the opposing side or create a conflict of interest. 2
“At  a trial,” as used in the rule, does not encompass pre-trial or   post-trial proceedings, and thus, does not preclude the attorney from  conducting a pre-trial deposition, even if it were likely that the  attorney would be called as a witness at a trial. 3 Generally, where an attorney is a necessary  witness for a client, the trial of the case should be left to other  counsel; the dual capacity of counsel
and witness in the trial of a  cause should be avoided if possible. 4 If, from the outset, an attorney knows or can  reasonably anticipate that his or her testimony will be essential to  the prosecution of his or her client’s case, the attorney should  decline the representation altogether. 5 To avoid jeopardizing a client’s cause of action,  the better practice is for counsel who must decline or withdraw from  representation to arrange to have other counsel conduct the trial when  it is apparent that either he or a member of his firm will be required  to testify on behalf of his client. 6

The  mere possibility that the attorney would or might be a necessary   witness is insufficient. 7  Furthermore, unsubstantiated claims that plaintiff’s attorney is a  material witness will not disqualify the attorney from representing  his client. 8 Likewise, a  defendant’s motion for disqualification of a plaintiff’s attorney will  not be granted on the ground that the attorney “should be” a witness  for the plaintiffs where the plaintiffs testify that they prefer to  have their attorney act as their counsel rather than have him testify  in their behalf, and where it appears that any information the attorney possess is not crucial and could be presented through the   testimony of others. 9The  rule requiring a lawyer to withdraw when he expects to be a necessary   witness in a case is not designed to permit a lawyer to call opposing   counsel as a witness and thereby disqualify him as counsel. 10 Indeed, the District Court of Appeal  views with some skepticism motions to disqualify an attorney on the  grounds that the attorney will be a material witness in the case,  since such motions are sometimes filed for tactical or harassing   reasons, rather than the proper reason. 11 Opposing counsel should not be permitted to force  disassociation between counsel and client just by calling counsel as  an adverse witness, and a lawyer need not withdraw from a case where   the mere possibility exists that he or she might be called to testify  by the adversary party, as this would create the situation in which  the adversary could disassociate the client’s chosen  counsel. 12

However, although disqualification of an attorney  is an extraordinary remedy to be resorted to only sparingly, 13 when it is shown that the attorney will  be an indispensable witness or when the attorney becomes a “central   figure” in the case, disqualification is appropriate. Thus,  disqualification of an attorney from representation of defendants at  the trial was warranted in a defamation action where the attorney was  likely to be the featured witness at the trial, adducing evidence as  to plaintiff’s activities. 14  Likewise, an attorney was properly disqualified from representing the  personal
representative in a will contest, where the attorney had  prepared and witnessed the contested will, and, therefore, would be a  witness on matters of substance at the trial. 15 Also, both an attorney and the attorney’s firm   should have been disqualified from representation, where an attorney  brought an action against a partnership for his wife in a  slip-and-fall case and for himself on a claim for loss of consortium,  and the attorney’s partner had represented the partnership and still  served as its resident agent for service of process, because the  attorney could well be called to testify, resulting in a violation of  a rule of professional conduct, and the firm, through its  representation, may have had access to privileged information of the  partnership. 16

¨ Observation: A  litigant’s action in causing the disqualification of its opponent’s  trial counsel enjoyed absolute immunity from a later claim of tortious  interference with a business relationship, where the litigant   certified to the trial court an intent to call opposing counsel as a  witness at trial, thereby causing opposing counsel to be disqualified,  but later failed to subpoena and call counsel as a witness at trial,  and when a judgment was entered against the litigant, disqualified  counsel brought an action against the litigant for tortious  interference with a business relationship. 17

FOOTNOTE 1. Rules  Regulating the Florida Bar, Rule 4-3.7(a).

Annotation References

Attorney as witness for client in civil  proceedings—modern state cases, 35
A.L.R. 4th 810.

Trial Strategy References

Attorney Malpractice in Real Estate Transactions,  27 Am. Jur. Proof of
Facts 3d 353.

Existence of attorney–client Relationship, 48 Am.  Jur. Proof of Facts 2d
525.

FOOTNOTE 2. Scott v.  State, 717 So. 2d 908, 23 Fla. L. Weekly S175 (Fla.
1998), reh’g  denied, (June 15, 1998).

FOOTNOTE 3. Columbo v.  Puig, 745 So. 2d 1106, 24 Fla. L. Weekly D2705
(Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 3d  Dist. 1999).

FOOTNOTE 4. Dudley v.  Wilson, 152 Fla. 752, 13 So. 2d 145 (1943).

FOOTNOTE 5. Hubbard v.  Hubbard, 233 So. 2d 150 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 4th
Dist. 1970) (decided  under predecessor law governing the Bar).

FOOTNOTE 6. Beavers v.  Conner, 258 So. 2d 330 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 3d
Dist. 1972), appeal  after remand, 289 So. 2d 462 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 3d Dist.
1974)  (decided under predecessor law governing the Bar).

FOOTNOTE 7. Srour v.  Srour, 733 So. 2d 593, 24 Fla. L. Weekly D1329 (Fla.
Dist. Ct. App.  5th Dist. 1999).

Singer Island Ltd., Inc. v. Budget Const. Co.,  Inc., 714 So. 2d 651, 23
Fla. L. Weekly D1773 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 4th  Dist. 1998).

A franchiser’s attorney was not required to be  disqualified for conflict
of interest based on the attorney’s previous  representation of a franchisee,
where the attorney previously had  written two letters and had sat in on
meetings with the franchisee in  connection with the franchisee’s claim that
its assignor was in breach  of its noncompetition agreement and, when the
franchisee brought an  action against the franchiser alleging a breach of the
franchise  agreement, contended that the attorney should be disqualified,
even  though there was no evidence that the attorney’s testimony would be
necessary or that his testimony would be averse to the franchiser’s  position.

Swensen’s Ice Cream Co. v. Voto, Inc., 652 So. 2d  961, 20 Fla. L. Weekly
D811 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 4th Dist.  1995).

FOOTNOTE 8. Pascucci v.  Pascucci, 679 So. 2d 1311, 21 Fla. L. Weekly D2142
(Fla. Dist. Ct.  App. 4th Dist. 1996).

FOOTNOTE 9. Cazares v.  Church of Scientology of California, Inc., 429 So.
2d 348 (Fla. Dist.  Ct. App. 5th Dist. 1983), petition for review denied,
438 So. 2d 831  (Fla. 1983) and related reference, 444 So. 2d 442 (Fla. Dist.
Ct. App.  5th Dist. 1983).

FOOTNOTE 10. Allstate Ins.  Co. v. English, 588 So. 2d 294, 16 Fla. L.
Weekly D2774 (Fla. Dist.  Ct. App. 2d Dist. 1991).

Arcara v. Philip M. Warren, P.A., 574 So. 2d 325,  16 Fla. L. Weekly 530
(Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 4th Dist. 1991).

Ray v. Stuckey, 491 So. 2d 1211, 11 Fla. L.  Weekly 1569 (Fla. Dist. Ct.
App. 1st Dist. 1986).

FOOTNOTE 11. Singer Island  Ltd., Inc. v. Budget Const. Co., Inc., 714 So.
2d 651, 23 Fla. L.  Weekly D1773 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 4th Dist. 1998).

FOOTNOTE 12. Allstate Ins.  Co. v. English, 588 So. 2d 294, 16 Fla. L.
Weekly D2774 (Fla. Dist.  Ct. App. 2d Dist. 1991).

FOOTNOTE 13. § 329.

FOOTNOTE 14. Fleitman v.  McPherson, 691 So. 2d 37, 22 Fla. L. Weekly D884
(Fla. Dist. Ct. App.  1st Dist. 1997), related reference, 704 So. 2d 587, 22
Fla. L. Weekly  D2091 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1st Dist. 1997).

FOOTNOTE 15. Larkin v.  Pirthauer, 700 So. 2d 182, 22 Fla. L. Weekly D2387
(Fla. Dist. Ct.  App. 4th Dist. 1997).

FOOTNOTE 16. Springtree  Country Club Plaza, Ltd. v. Blaut, 642 So. 2d 27,
19 Fla. L. Weekly  D1704 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 4th Dist. 1994).

FOOTNOTE 17. Levin,  Middlebrooks, Mabie, Thomas, Mayes & Mitchell, P.A. v.
U.S. Fire  Ins. Co., 639 So. 2d 606, 19 Fla. L. Weekly S347 (Fla. 1994).