An instructive case of what appears to be foreclosure fraud was recently heard by the Florida 4th District Court of Appeals (West Palm Beach) in Pino v. Bank of New York Mellon. I have personally defended similar cases many times. BNY Mellon filed an action to foreclose a mortgage against the defendant. The mortgage attached Read the Rest…
In Florida, in order to foreclose on your property, the owner of the mortgage (plaintiff) must file a lawsuit. At an early stage in the foreclosure action, the plaintiff will ordinarily file an application (motion) for a ‘summary judgment’ stating that the facts are not in dispute and judgment must be granted as a matter Read the Rest…
Convincing the Social Security Administration (SSA) that you are disabled because of Fibromyalgia is a challenge for you and your attorney. Fibromyalgia is a rheumatic disease that can produce muscle and joint pain, stiffness and fatigue and a pattern of sleep disturbance. If the symptoms are sufficiently severe, it can be disabling. For a general Read the Rest…
The childhood disability rules apply to children from birth to age 18, although under certain circumstances, it can apply up to age 21. In any event, the onset of a disabling impairment must precede a child’s 22nd birthday. In order to obtain Social Security benefits for a child, you must be able to show a Read the Rest…
Florida has moved away from the concept of ‘child visitation’ and ‘primary custody’ and has instead adopted the idea of time sharing. Time sharing recognizes that both parents have equal rights, even if they do not get equal time with the children. Parents must now enter into a time sharing plan which sets out their Read the Rest…
She came in for a free consultation. She tells me that after 10 years, her marriage is broken and her husband has moved out. They own a house valued at $200,000 (it was worth $300,000 a couple of years ago) with a $250,000 mortgage. She wants to keep the house. He works for the County Read the Rest…
Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Can Keep You in your Home THE PROBLEM: Consider the following (unfortunately) common situation faced by many homeowners: their home in the current depressed real estate market is worth $150,000. They have two mortgages on the property that they obtained during the real estate boom several years ago. The have a first Read the Rest…
Seeing a lawyer for a bankruptcy problem is much like seeing a dentist. You try to ignore the pain as long as you can before you make an appointment. When you finally do, you wonder why you waited so long and went through months or years of unnecessary discomfort. As an attorney who sees clients Read the Rest…
How Did This Happen? I doubt that you planned to be sued in foreclosure. Most likely, you planned for your home or other real estate to be a primary investment. Unfortunately, the economy didn’t cooperate. Or, in a world of constantly rising real estate prices, you kept borrowing against imagined equity, assuming that the market Read the Rest…
Not all loans are alike. A tuition bill is not a student loan. As a general rule, student loans are non-dischargeable debts, which means that you will still have to pay the loan off even after filing for Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Under current law, this is true for both federal and private Read the Rest…