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Issue #32 June 15th, 2009
Your Bi-Weekly Newsflash from
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A quick dash of news you need to hear
 
In This Issue
Florida Courts Urge Mortgage Renegotiations
Short Sale Flips Nixed
Florida Courts Urge Mortgage Renegotiations
Florida may have the highest foreclosure rate in the nation, and while the Legislature failed to take comprehensive action this spring, the courts have stepped in with efforts to encourage renegotiation of mortgages.

With Florida accounting for one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country and legislators showing little interest in addressing the crisis, a handful of judges are exploring ways to keep borrowers and lenders out of an increasingly congested court system.

''It's very frustrating to recognize that consistently over the last three years we've sustained budget cutbacks and staff reductions in the court system and this tsunami has hit with foreclosures,'' said Treasure Coast Circuit Judge Burton Conner, whose circuit covers Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River and Okeechobee counties.

That circuit has begun requiring borrowers and lenders to meet before their first court appearances, leading to many cases settling.

Home short sale flips nixed
It may be a bit tougher now for investors to flip short sales for big profits.

Attorneys' Title Insurance Fund notified its 6,000 member lawyers this week that it will not insure deals made with a popular - but controversial - method for closing flips of short sales. A short sale occurs when a mortgage holder agrees to allow a home to sell for less than the mortgage balance so that foreclosure can be avoided.

The Orlando-based fund is a major underwriter for lawyers who write title insurance in Florida. In a letter to lawyers, the fund said it has become aware of short sale programs advertised on the Internet that promise to make investors lots of money with little or no work.

The letter says they involve investors entering option deals with homeowners for "the exclusive right to purchase their property for a period of time."

Read on...
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Facebook Is 'Evidentiary Gold Mine,' News Mag Says [Poll]



Facebook and other social networking sites may be the cat's meow when Internet users are trying to connect with family and friends. But when it comes time to disconnect, things can get ugly.

So reports Time magazine, which notes that lawyers "love these sites, which can be evidentiary gold mines."

"It's now just routine for us to go over with clients whether they have an active presence on the Web and if they Twitter or have a MySpace page," lawyer Joseph Cordell, whose firm Cordell & Cordell handles family law cases in 10 states, told Time.

Cordell told the magazine that he advises his mostly male clients to scour their social media pages, and pages belonging to girlfriends, for anything that can be used by the opposition's legal team.  The article notes some smoking-gun items that Cordell's firm has discovered while mining these sites:

· In a custody case in which a mom assured the court she wasn't drinking, but her MySpace page included dated photos of her drinking.

· A case in which a mom listed herself on a dating site as single with no children.

Read the entire article here

I hope you enjoyed this newsletter. 

Sincerely Yours,
 

 
Michael C. Blickensderfer, Esq. 
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This excerpt is not meant to substitute for legal advice.  If you have a legal question, please contact our office and speak with an attorney.