State Bar Gives Golden State Counsel Six Months In Penalty Box For Violating Tenants' Rights In Running Fraudulent Robosigning F'closure Eviction Mill

In San Francisco, California, Highland News reports:

• Two years after Tenants Together demanded that attorney David Endres stop illegally evicting tenants, the State Bar of California has suspended Endres from practice. Endres has been notorious for pursuing eviction actions on behalf of major banks after foreclosure in violation of federal, state and local law. The Bar suspended Endres from practice for six months and ordered Endres to pay the costs of the proceeding in the amount of $4,000.



• Dean Preston, Executive Director of Tenants Together, California’s statewide organization for renters’ rights, welcomed the news of disciplinary action, but called for stronger sanctions: “We are pleased to see the Bar taking action to police unethical eviction lawyers, but this 6-month suspension is not nearly enough. David Endres should be disbarred, if not put in jail. His fraudulent robo-signing eviction mill caused the mass eviction of thousands of tenants and undermined the integrity of the judicial system. He should never be permitted to practice law in this state again.”

***

• Endres has handled thousands of eviction cases on behalf of major financial institutions including U.S. Bank, HSBC, and Aurora Loan Services. The August 23, 2011 suspension order from the State Bar notes that he filed over 1,000 cases between July 1, 2009 and December 31, 2009 alone.



• To accomplish these mass filings, Endres had non-attorney staff prepare verified pleadings and sign on his behalf.



• Endres knowingly submitted false verifications to the court. The Bar concluded that “respondent aided the unauthorized practice of law, in willful violation of Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 1-300(A)” and “sought to mislead judicial officers, in willful violation of Business and Professions Code section 6068(d).”

For more, see California Bar Suspends Attorney for Illegal Foreclosure Evictions of Tenants (Statewide Tenant Organization Calls for Stiffer Sanctions).

See also, News10.net: Davis attorney suspended in foreclosure evictions probe.