REAL ESTATE CRISIS IN FLORIDA: FROM THE 99% POINT OF VIEW

I am an attorney that has been practicing law in South Florida since I became a lawyer in 1975. I started out as a Legal Services Lawyer for the first 5 or so years and then spent most of the next 25 years representing lenders, in connection with foreclosures of commercial and residential property. That part of my practice stopped completely in 2007, and I was winding my law practice down when the real estate bubble in South Florida burst, and I began my career representing homeowners. Little by little, old clients and friends began referring homeowners to me who were victims of the economic collapse we have all suffered through in the last 3 years.

My clients run the complete spectrum of the 99% of people who work for a living and have bought into the American dream. They include professionals; doctors, lawyers and engineers, as well as blue collar workers, construction workers, government employees, such as teachers and police officers and people who have worked in the hospitality industry. My background as an ex-bank lawyer, a family lawyer, and a general practice lawyer, with over 35 years of experience, has provided me with litigation skills and an inside-out knowledge of the foreclosure process; I couldn’t turn people down.

With many years of experience as a family lawyer in making “the deal,” it appeared that representing homeowners was a perfect fit for me. I’m frankly proud to say that my associate and I, and our staff of 6-7 have effectively represented hundreds of individuals and families and have effectively saved hundreds of homes, by ultimately obtaining some litigation “wins” in some cases and workable “modifications” in many others. My experience in the last 3 years at what is going on now has drawn me, almost forced me, to start this blog.

For most of the last 4 decades, I have been extremely proud to be an attorney as my profession. Despite the many critics, and general ridicule, I thought being a lawyer was the embodiment of the American dream and ideal. The rule of law and the justice system is the ultimate protection that is supposed to give every individual American citizen the same rights as every other citizen. The experience in the last few years, however, has left me deeply disillusioned, and the process I face on a daily basis in representing people whose home and life savings are at stake is, more and more, day after day, becoming more unfair and one-sided; slanted towards the lenders, all in the name of “economic expediency.” The idea of justice, of equity; a man’s home is his castle, the legal traditions that separate and order our Republic, are being ignored, pushed aside, and all too often just considered a nuisance, all in an effort, it seems to me, to help the lenders; whose conduct and behavior precipitated the economic collapse which we are all now facing.

The commentators, and even the general public, seem to criticize the “occupy movement” for its amorphous and undefined bitchiness… “what do they want?” What they want seems clear to me…they want this B.S., the tyranny by the moneylenders, the 1%, to stop. The irony is that the perpetrators who are indeed making “war” against the vast majority of us, use the loaded political term of “class warfare” to criticize anyone who objects. Are we really that stupid?