California Attorney In Hot Water For Advising Foreclosed Homeowners To Break In & Reoccupy Former Homes

In Southern California, the North County Times reports:

• The real estate attorney who recommended that families break into homes they'd lost to foreclosure will be meeting with investigators from the state bar association in January, the attorney's assistant confirmed.

• Encinitas lawyer Michael T. Pines made news in October when he advised four Southern California families, including two in Escondido, to hire locksmiths and break into their homes, which banks had repossessed. He argued that their lenders had granted the families mortgage loans under fraudulent conditions and had no right to foreclose.

• Local legal experts found his theories dubious, and judges agreed. Pines himself is in a complicated bankruptcy liquidation proceeding and may soon lose his office building.

For more, see Bar complaint filed against foreclosure attorney Pines (Attorney advised clients to break into foreclosed houses).

See also: Ventura County Star: DA files complaint against lawyer of family who broke into home.