South Florida Foreclosure Mill Throws In Towel; Will Shut Down At End Of Month

In Plantation, Florida, Reuters reports:

• A prominent Florida lawyer accused of mishandling many foreclosure cases in that state is shutting down his foreclosure law practice at the end of the month, a regulatory filing shows.

• The decision by the lawyer, David Stern, was announced by DJSP Enterprises Inc, a company he once ran and which calls itself the main customer of the Law Offices of David J. Stern PA. DJSP said it expects to receive no further referrals from Stern. The company, whose businesses have included processing, servicing and title operations, has already laid off much of its workforce.

• A lawyer for Stern did not immediately respond to a request for a comment on Monday. DJSP shares traded down 7 cents, or 29.2 percent, at 17 cents in morning trading on the Nasdaq, after falling as low as 15.5 cents. They traded as high as $13.65 last April.

• Stern's firm is among several being investigated by the office of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi over whether documents they submitted in foreclosure cases were defective. Major mortgage companies, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, stopped doing business with Stern.

• Florida media last month said Stern was trying to sell some luxury assets, including homes and a yacht, worth millions of dollars. He resigned as chief executive of Plantation, Florida-based DJSP in November.

Source: Florida lawyer David Stern ends foreclosure law practice.

See aslo, The Palm Beach Post: Stern law firm ends foreclosure operations:

• On Friday, Stern sent a letter to Florida judges saying his firm still needed to withdraw from 100,000 cases statewide, nearly a third of the state's court backlog of 350,615 foreclosure cases.

• "We have been forced to drastically reduce our attorney and paralegal staff to the point where we no longer have the financial or personnel resources to continue to file Motions to Withdraw in tens of thousands of cases that we still remain as counsel of record," Stern wrote. "Therefore, it is with great regret that we will be ceasing the servicing of clients with respect to all pending foreclosure matters in the State of Florida as of March 31, 2011."