Lender Can’t Ban Class Actions and Deny Customers Their Day in Court
“We’re extremely pleased that the Court of Appeal saw through McKenzie’s attempt to use its fine print contract to give it immunity from the state’s consumer protection laws,” said Public Justice Senior Attorney Paul Bland, who argued the appeal.  “The court sent a clear message today that consumers can’t be robbed of their day in court by a sentence buried within an arbitration clause that prohibits class actions in cases where that’s the only way for consumers to obtain any remedy.” 

Foreclosed Homeowners Go to Court on Their Own
Lawyers are scarce and free legal assistance is overwhelmed in New Mexico, so a community center here is offering an hourlong class in how to download the correct forms, decipher the lingo and mount a defense, however tentative and primitive, against a multibillion-dollar bank... In New Mexico, New York, Florida and the 20 other states where foreclosures require a judge’s approval, homeowners in default have traditionally surrendered their homes without ever coming to court to defend themselves. (In the 27 other states, including California, Nevada and Arizona, homeowners have a much harder time contesting a foreclosure even if they want to.)

Bad News: New Book Probes Role of Press in Financial Crisis
Given that some economists still debate the root causes of the Great Depression, little wonder that a multitude of competing stories still vies for affirmation as explanation for the financial crisis of 2008... As several chapters in Bad News make clear, a good deal of excellent work in the years before the crisis could have limited the pain had warnings been heeded--not least, work by my former Times colleagues Gretchen Morgenson and David Leonhardt, who sounded the alarm early on that home prices were getting well of whack with American incomes, setting up a fall. The trouble was that a louder chorus repeatedly drowned out this probing reporting about the magnitude of the real estate bubble--a steady celebration of permanently rising home price, the fantasy that propelled a construction binge, a mortgage bonanza and no end of wealth that got created along the way. That chorus abetted and enabled the capture of the regulators who are supposed to be able to tune out such noise while dispassionately scrutinizing the numbers.

Matt Taibbi on how foreclosure courts are helping big banks screw over homeowners 
The foreclosure  lawyers down in Jacksonville had warned me, but I was skeptical. They told me the state of Florida had created a special super-high-speed housing court with a specific mandate to rubber-stamp the legally dicey foreclosures by corporate mortgage pushers like Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan Chase. This "rocket docket," as it is called in town, is presided over by retired judges who seem to have no clue about the insanely complex financial instruments they are ruling on — securitized mortgages and laby­rinthine derivative deals of a type that didn't even exist when most of them were active members of the bench. Their stated mission isn't to decide right and wrong, but to clear cases and blast human beings out of their homes with ultimate velocity. They certainly have no incentive to penetrate the profound criminal mysteries of the great American mortgage bubble of the 2000s, perhaps the most complex Ponzi scheme in human history — an epic mountain range of corporate fraud in which Wall Street megabanks conspired first to collect huge numbers of subprime mortgages, then to unload them on unsuspecting third parties like pensions, trade unions and insurance companies (and, ultimately, you and me, as taxpayers) in the guise of AAA-rated investments.

A Bank Crisis Whodunit, With Laughs and Tears
Finally, if it’s comic relief you’re after, turn to Page 105 for an interview with Angelo R. Mozilo, former chief executive of Countrywide Financial, a lender that profited by roping unsuspecting borrowers into poisonous loans.   Mr. Mozilo, the commission said, described his company as having “prevented social unrest” by providing loans to 25 million borrowers, many of them members of minority groups. Never mind that throngs of these loans have resulted in foreclosures and evictions. “Countrywide was one of the greatest companies in the history of this country,” Mr. Mozilo maintained, “and probably made more difference to society, to the integrity of our society, than any company in the history of America.” You cannot make this stuff up.  Related Article - See You Tube Quantitative Easing Explained

Out-of-control HOAs need reform
Homeowners Associations, known as HOAs, are multiplying across central Texas. So are the complaints against them.  Nearly 5 million people live in HOAs in Texas, and one out of every four homes built in the state during the last decade is part of one. But some homeowners said HOAs are out of control and now Texas lawmakers are listening.

Legal documentary "Hot Coffee" a provocative brew
Like many excellent documentaries, "Hot Coffee" is more a visual editorial rather than an all-encompassing and comprehensive distillation of a subject matter, in this case, our tort system. Essentially, it will play to standing ovations with the Trial Lawyers Assn., but be deplored by corporations and such entities as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Such is the direct force of its message.

Furry Creatures Explain Bank Bailouts: 'The Screwing Of The American People' (VIDEO)
In the new video, from Omid Malekan, one character asks why the banks were bailed out, and the other responds "Because they said the banks were too big to fail, and if they failed, there would be too many foreclosures, and no new mortgages." The video goes on to point out that after the bailouts, banks didn't stop foreclosures, or issue new mortgages. But one executive at Bank of America did pay bill on his $70,000 desk.

Perry Homes settles decade-old lawsuit by Mansfield couple
The two sides appeared in state District Judge Tom Lowe's courtroom Wednesday for a brief status conference but were instead immediately ushered into mediation. It was the third attempt at mediation in the case.