Foreclosure Sweatshop Operator Takes Scolding From Judge Over Sloppy Work; Ordered To Continue Personal Court Appearances Until Each File Is Corrected

In Poughkeepsie, New York, the New York Post reports:

• Take that, Steven Baum! The 50-year-old lawyer, who owns New York’s largest home-foreclosure mill, made a rare appearance in a courtroom [recently] — and was promptly ripped by a Bankruptcy Court judge frustrated by his firm’s sloppy work.



• Baum, whose eponymous firm has filed more than 25,000 foreclosure actions across the state over the past three years — many of which have been attacked for containing bogus documents — was lectured by Judge Cecilia Morris to correct his way of practicing law.



• “How many times do I have to tell you, you didn’t do it right,” Morris said during the afternoon hearing. “Do you not understand ‘do it right’?” she asked Baum.



• Morris had ordered Baum to appear in her courtroom personally after a steady stream of his firm’s lawyers mucked up several of the 180 foreclosure cases he has before the New York federal courts.



• The judge accused Baum of “slowing down the court” by failing to properly transfer his cases to other lawyers as he prepared to shutter his Buffalo-area firm. [...] “Please don’t make me angry,” Morris warned.



• The hearing in the Poughkeepsie courtroom was attended by several bankruptcy lawyers who have sparred with Baum in the past, who said afterwards that they were there just to see Baum sweat.

***

• Apparently not happy with his responses to questions, Morris ordered Baum to make repeat appearances in her courtroom until “each file” is corrected. “I’m telling you, you are walking on bad faith,” Morris said.

For the story, see He’s losing his appeal (Judge gives foreclosure king the Baum’s rush).