Two state lawmakers want home foreclosure notices to go online – not in your local newspaper. A law firm in the Bay area stands to make big bucks off the switch, but that firm is under investigation by the Florida attorney general.
Even if you don’t read them, foreclosure notices show up in most local papers multiple times each week. However, State Sen. Steve Wise (R-Jacksonville) and Rep. Dennis Baxley (R-Ocala) want to move those legal notices to the digital world with two bills filed at the state capitol.
The Florida attorney general’s office has confirmed the names of three law firms added to its foreclosure investigation, including Kahane & Associates, which handles hundreds of home repossessions in Palm Beach County.
The Plantation-based company, as well as the Tampa firms of Daniel C. Consuegra, and Albertelli Legal received letters of inquiry in December from the Economic Crimes Division of the attorney general’s office.
All of the firms are part of mortgage giant Fannie Mae’s retained attorney network in Florida. Consuegra was just added to the list in November following Fannie Mae’s decision to stop using the Law Offices of David J. Stern, which is also under investigation.
The Dec. 2 letter to the three firms says the attorney general has opened a preliminary investigation regarding complaints the state has received of “unfair, deceptive and unconscionable practices” in how defaulted mortgages have been handled.
Investigators give the firms 45 days to hand over all consumer complaints received in a two-year period beginning in April 2008, employee directions as to the handling of foreclosures, and correspondence regarding remedies taken to assure proper methods are being followed in filing foreclosures.
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