New NYC Non-Profit Legal Clinic Gives Homeowners Foreclosure Self-Defense Training

In New York City, WNYC Radio 93.9 FM (820 AM) reports:

• A new legal clinic is claiming great success in helping homeowners fight off foreclosure of their homes. [...] In July, [a] Brooklyn businesswoman was sued by her bank after missing payments. Now she's headed to court. [She's] been trained in foreclosure law by a new nonprofit called Common Law.(1) Co-founder Karen Gargamelli says it's a program born of necessity. "Because there are only a handful of people that even understand the foreclosure laws, people have to represent themselves against the bank," [she said.]

• A spokesman for the state Bar Association confirmed that very few attorneys in New York practice foreclosure law. Gargamelli says each of the 50 or so homeowners her group has advised have convinced the court to not foreclose on them.

For the story, see New Legal Clinic Helps Homeowners Fighting Foreclosure.

In a related story, see New York Daily News: Nonprofit 'Common Law' trains homeowners to be their own lawyers.

(1) According to this City University of New York (CUNY) Law School Alumni News report, Common Law Inc. is a non-profit consortium of three CUNY Law alums from the class of 2006, who created a clinic to help homeowners in foreclosure. At the clinic, homeowners listen to the situations faced by nearby residents. At a following meeting, they describe their own situations. Then, experts in foreclosure help them with paperwork so they can represent themselves in court.