Pro Se Homowner In Foreclosure Getting Harrassment From The Florida Bar?

Buried in a recent msnbc.com article on homeowners in foreclosure going into court and representing themselves against the mortgage lender was this excerpt about one Florida homeowner responding to why he was representing himself:

• [M]ario Kenny, [a] Miami resident who is fighting foreclosure pro se and writing about his experience online,(1) said the cost of professional help is too high. “A lawyer wants too much money — ... $5,000, $10,000, $15,000,” he said.

• Besides, Kenny said, the legal profession is doing more to aid foreclosures than avert them. “They are stopping us and getting in our way,” he charged, referring to what he described as a warning by someone with the Florida Bar Association [sic] that advice on his Web site bordered on practicing law without a license. “I don’t practice law, I don’t have any clients, I don’t charge anybody,” said Kenny, a 52-year-old fashion designer.(2)

• The bar association, which regulates the state’s 85,000 lawyers, had no record of Kenny being contacted or investigated, but said it could not rule that out. Lori Holcomb, the bar’s counsel for unlicensed practice of law, said the bar is much more likely to investigate “companies that have gone into business to do this, not individuals who say, ‘Hey, I’ve done my foreclosure, let me help you with yours.’”

Source: The home you save could be your own (In foreclosure crisis, more Americans representing themselves in court).

(1) A review of some of the material on Mr. Kenny's blog reveals that he may be a fan of this blog. The fact that he lifted some of my material and used it on his blog, although done without attribution, is really quite flattering.

(2) Could it be possible that there is someone over at The Florida Bar who is that stupid that he/she believes that hassling a homeowner writing about his foreclosure experiences on the Internet poses more of a threat to the general public than, say, non-attorney loan modification firms charging big upfront fees for reviewing legal documents in search of violations of applicable lending law (and, arguably, are engaging in the unlicensed / unaythorized practice of law)??? Or, just as bad or worse, attorneys with little training or experience in this area of law charging big upfront fees and

• doing little or nothing in terms of substantive litigation in representing homeowners other than delaying a foreclosure for a couple of months; and/or
• allowing themselves to be used as a fig leaf for loan modification firms seeking "protective cover " with the view that said cover could be enough to keep The Florida Bar from bringing charges of unlicensed / unauthorized practice of law against them?