More Attorneys Seek Class Action Status When Defending Forclosures Involving Sloppy Lender Paperwork; Seen As Way To Make Most Of Scant Resources

In St. Paul, Minnesota, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports:

• Jane Bowman has to turn away many Minnesotans who desperately need a lawyer to guide them through foreclosure hell. But if the court grants class-action status to one of her current cases involving jumbled foreclosure paperwork, Bowman could potentially help thousands of people nationwide.

• Bowman, 31, has spent nearly three years working for the Foreclosure Relief Law Project, a St. Paul-based nonprofit formed by the Housing Preservation Project in 2007 after the foreclosure crisis showed signs of deepening.(1)

• The project's staff currently includes Bowman and fellow attorney Kari Rudd. Mark Ireland, the project's founding attorney, recently resigned to become a Ramsey County District Court Judge. The group's small stature means they must be very selective about which cases to take, focusing on the ones that are most likely to influence the legal landscape and help the greatest number of people.

• Take the case of St. Cloud homeowners Steven and Tamara Gewecke, who have been fighting their foreclosure for three years. They assert that U.S. Bank doesn't have the right to foreclose because the legal authority to do so was not properly transferred to the bank. Bowman alleges that when the bank couldn't show the proper paperwork that should have accompanied the mortgage when it changed hands four times, it fabricated some. "They skipped over these middle steps," said Bowman, which is an issue "because you don't want somebody to show up with your mortgage and say 'You owe me the money.' You have to have proof.''

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• Bowman goes to court this month to request class-action status for her case. To this layperson, a class-action suit seems particularly appropriate. What homeowner do you know who can make sense of a paperwork puzzle that even the experts can't seem to figure out? And if you're dealing with foreclosure, I can't see how you could pay a lawyer. Very few lawyers can afford not to charge.

For the story, see Tiny law project looking for big case (A local nonprofit is fighting foreclosures one case at a time).

(1) The Housing Preservation Project is a nonprofit public interest advocacy and legal organization whose primary mission is to preserve and expand affordable housing for low income individuals and families, and is based in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Foreclosure Relief Law Project is an effort to identify viable legal and advocacy strategies which can avert foreclosures and keep homeowners in their homes, and which can stabilize neighborhoods by reducing the blighting effects of widespread foreclosures.