Florida Court asks Banks to Show the Note and finds them committing fraud

This month a Florida court cracked down on a legal firm that supposedly forged foreclosure documents.

A legal firm would assign a fake assignee as the mortgage owner. Sometimes signing a fake name (such as Linda Green) and signed thousands of documents for Bank of America, Wells Fargo, US Bank and others. The court found problems with the notary stamp on many of the documents and sometimes the bank that was bringing the foreclosure to the court never owned the note. And neither did the mortgage servicer.

So if you're in that situation you should know your rights and ask your attorney or the court to have the bank "Show the Note"... If they can't prove they own the I.O.U. on your house, you'll be able to buy yourself significant time.

According to the Washington Post

Some of the problems in foreclosure paperwork are being created because mortgage loans were repackaged and resold to investors so often that the physical documents become lost. It's the job of a document processor to present and vouch for the authenticity and accuracy of these papers, but attorneys for homeowners have unearthed examples where critical records are forged.

In theory, a judge should review the files one more time. But after the crisis produced massive numbers of delinquent homeowners, judges in many cases became overwhelmed.

Some simply took at face value the documents handed over to them by the lenders - who in many cases were not checking the files, either, according to interviews with judges, attorneys and consumer groups.

In some Florida courts, for instance, many judges automatically approve a foreclosure unless a borrower can point to a specific problem. Homeowners are given five minutes for a presentation. Often, they do not bother to show up.