Dumb Article of the Day: “Niche Lawyers Spawned Housing Fracas”

Wow, the WSJ really seems to be on my Thursday S^%$ list:

“It was a first step in the growth of a legal sub-specialty called foreclosure defense that has sown confusion and turmoil in the housing market. Lawyers in the field now commonly use a technique more identified with corporate litigation: probing depositions, designed to uncover any lapses in judgment, flaws in a process or wrongdoing. In the 23 states where foreclosures entail a court hearing, the bank may be ordered to pay the homeowner’s legal bill if a lawyer can convince a judge that the bank has submitted false documents, such as affidavits saying employees personally reviewed the details of loans when they didn’t.”

Excuse me, but why would you write that the identification of fraud and perjury has sown confusion; Isn’t it the fraud and perjury that is to blame?

Its like an episode of Scooby Doo: “And old man Kowalksi would have gotten away with it, if it wasn’t for those meddling kids!”

You see, according to the article, it was not GMAC that caused the problem, by failing to discharge its legal obligations and committing mass perjury — it is the defense lawyers. Apparently, vigorous defense is appropriate when its for a corporate litigant, but when some poor schmuck is losing his house and exercises his legal rights, it is merely an annoyance.

And that is the our Dumb Article of the Day, from the former best paper in America.

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Source:
Niche Lawyers Spawned Housing Fracas
ROBBIE WHELAN
WSJ, OCTOBER 21, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304410504575560072576527604.html

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