Moving From Robo-Signers To Robo Witnesses: The Recent Shift In Foreclosure Fraud Practices

David Dayen at Firedoglake writes:

• Last week, Thomas Cox, the Maine lawyer who performed the deposition that basically exposed robo-signing, won the $100,000 Purpose Prize for his work on behalf of homeowners at risk of foreclosure. I spoke with Cox this week to get a ground-level picture of what is happening in the courts in the post-settlement landscape. Have banks cleaned up their foreclosure practices? Are homeowners still getting the shaft?
  
  Sadly, Cox told me that very little has changed with regards to foreclosures.

***

• [W]hile Cox believes that the mass signing of foreclosure documents by “limited signing officers” with no underlying knowledge of the loan file has generally stopped, he has encountered in his cases in Maine a more subtle problem.
  
  “Now the servicers have litigation departments with specialists,” Cox said. “They are trained as trial witnesses to say certain things in court. But they still don’t have the experience level. The Maine Supreme Court said witnesses had to have personal knowledge of the loan documents, to be intimately involved with the details. These people in these departments are not intimately involved.”
  
  Basically, we’ve moved from robo-signers to robo-witnesses, at least from Cox’ experience.

For more, see Meet the Robo-Witnesses: Foreclosure Defense Lawyer Tom Cox on New Practices in Foreclosure Fraud.