New York Moves To Provide Attorneys For All State Homeowners In Foreclosure By Year End

The New York Times reports:

• New York court officials outlined procedures Tuesday aimed at assuring that all homeowners facing foreclosure were represented by a lawyer, a shift that could give tens of thousands of families a better chance to save their homes.

• Criminal defendants are guaranteed a lawyer but New York will be the first state to try and extend that pledge to foreclosures, which are civil matters. There are about 80,000 active foreclosure cases in New York courts. In more than half the cases, only the banks have lawyers.

• “It’s such an uneven playing field,” the state’s chief judge, Jonathan Lippman, said. “Banks wind up with the property and the homeowner winds up over the cliff, on the street. It doesn’t serve anyone’s interest, including the banks’.” A lawyer for every defendant will also serve the courts’ interests, the judge said, by making proceedings more efficient.

• Under the procedures, which will be put in place in Queens and Orange counties in the next few weeks and across the state by the end of the year, any homeowner in foreclosure who does not have a lawyer will be supplied one by legal aid groups or other pro bono groups. Legal aid groups are expected to have foreclosure offices in the courts to handle the influx.

For more, see New York to Assure Legal Aid in Foreclosure Cases.