Assembly Line, F'closure Mill Law Firm Targeted In Fla. AG Civil Probe Into Allegations Of Manufacturing False, Misleading Documents In Legal Actions

In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, The Wall Street Journal reports:

• The Florida attorney general's office is investigating possible misconduct by a large law firm that files foreclosures for banks, according to a posting on its Web site.(1) The Web site said the office is looking at whether Florida Default Law Group, based in Tampa, was involved in "fabricating and/or presenting false and misleading documents in foreclosure cases."

• Mortgage documents that are used to prove a bank has a right to foreclose "have later been shown to be legally inadequate and/or insufficient," the Web site said. A spokeswoman for Florida Default declined to comment. Ryan Wiggins, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Bill McCollum, said the investigation began last fall.

• The civil probe comes as some judges and federal prosecutors in Florida are paying close attention to how banks—and so-called foreclosure-mill law firms that work for banks—are attempting to take control of homes from borrowers in default. Judges across the country have chastised banks and their attorneys for attempting to seize properties they can't prove they own. Last month, a Florida judge said that a mortgage document filed by a bank in a foreclosure case was part of an "intentional effort to mislead" the court.

• The attorney general's office said on its Web site that Florida Default "appears to be" a client of Lender Processing Services Inc., a Jacksonville company that has said it is being investigated by the federal criminal prosecutors. LPS, which processes and sometimes produces documents needed by banks to prove they own the mortgages, has acknowledged errors with documents they processed that were filed in foreclosure cases and said they have been fixed. An LPS spokeswoman said on Thursday the company is "willing to cooperate with any regulatory body that contacts us." Ms. Wiggins said the attorney general's office recently began investigating conduct by LPS in foreclosures.

• Faulty bank paperwork has been an issue in foreclosure proceedings across the U.S. since the housing crisis took hold a few years ago. It is sometimes difficult for banks, which act on behalf of mortgage-securities investors in most foreclosure cases, to prove they own the loans.

For the story, see Florida Probing Law Firm in Foreclosures (requires paid subscription; if no subscription, TRY HERE, then click link for the story).

Thanks to Michael at 4closureFraud and Deontos .is for the heads up on the story.

(1) For the Florida AG posting, see Active Public Consumer-Related Investigation of Florida Default Law Group, PL - Case # L10-3-1095:

• Appears to be fabricating and/or presenting false and misleading documents in foreclosure cases. These documents have been presented in court before judges as actual assignments of mortgages and have later been shown to be legally inadequate and/or insufficient. Presenting faulty bank paperwork due to the mortgage crisis and thousands of foreclosures per month. This firm is one of the largest foreclosure firms in the State. This firm appears to be one of Docx, LLC a/k/a Lender Processing Services' clients, who this office is also investigating.