Category Archives: Bankruptcy and Foreclosures
What Happens When the Bank Issues a 1099-C on Your Home Loan? Maybe Nothing.
As you may know, a judgment of foreclosure doesn’t just mean that your property can be taken from you. It also can mean a potential money judgment down the road, if you owe more than what the property is worth when its foreclosed on. The Effect of a 1099-C Many borrowers receive what they… Read More »
Judge: Will Not Vacate Foreclosure Ruling Against Bank of America
A federal bankruptcy judge who took Bank of America to task for its treatment of homeowners in a foreclosure case refused to rescind his scathing opinion in which he called the bank “heartless” for its conduct, despite the bank’s agreement to settle if the judge did so. In Sundquist v. Bank of America, the… Read More »
Bank of America to Pay $6M to Couple Bankrupted, Evicted
An eight-year dispute over allegations of debt harassment, illegal foreclosure and a resulting bankruptcy has been resolved, with Bank of America agreeing to pay $6 million to the couple affected. The proposed settlement has reportedly affected every aspect of the family’s life. While $6 million may sound like a lot, it’s far less than… Read More »
Obama’s Failure to Mitigate the U.S. Foreclosure Crisis
There are a number of commendable accomplishments by President Barack Obama during his eight years in office. These were recently detailed in long-form story called, “My President Was Black,” by Ta-Nehisi Coates of The Atlantic. However, this profile of Obama is incomplete in one regard: It does not take into account his failure to… Read More »
WSJ: National Mortgage Settlement Money Mostly Went to Gov’t
The biggest banks in the country set in motion the events resulting in the mortgage crisis that would tailspin the nation into an economic depression. Millions of people conned into overpriced and risky mortgages lost their homes to foreclosure. Many also had to file for bankruptcy. To pay for this, the federal government finagled… Read More »
Miami Rental Market Among Toughest in Nation
Renters in Miami are being bled dry by a combination of sharply rising housing costs, stagnant wages and lower-than-average incomes. A report from the website apartmentlist.com, based on figures from the most recent 2014 U.S. Census, reveals that no other city in the county had as many renters as cost-burdened as those in Miami…. Read More »
Judge: Money Rules America’s Court Systems
The trial lawyers at Jacobs Legal have often noted the civil court system is skewed toward banks and other deep-pocketed entities. Even though courts are supposed to be one of those places where the playing field is even – justice being blind, and all that – there is much to suggest that is not… Read More »
Editorial: Banks Rarely Held Accountable to Any Real Degree
A number of large financial institutions are preparing to settle with the U.S. Justice Department over allegations they engaged in a massive price-rigging scandal that involved many trillions of dollars in foreign currency trades. The Justice Department has promised the settlement in this case will be far tougher than those negotiated in the past… Read More »
Sen. Elizabeth Warren: Government Protected Wall Street, Not Families
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren has been one of the very few voices in Washington that has consistently spoken out about systematic governmental failures in protecting average Americans. A Harvard professor and author, Warren ran the Congressional Oversight Panel, which supervised the bank bailout spending and helped launch the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In a… Read More »
Home Equity Loans Could Make for the Next Foreclosure Mess
During the housing bubble, many homeowners took out home equity lines of credit to tap into the equity in their homes. Now, an increasing number of those home equity loans have been outstanding for 10 years, which means that borrowers are required to start paying back principal while before they were just able to… Read More »
