I took a break from this blog and intended to be absent during a career transition.
However, fraudsters do not rest. Fighting fraudsters appears to mean no rest for me.
The latest reason for my frustration: the Illinois Appellate Court issued an an opinion on December 23, 2012. During the course of the holidays, fraudsters have taken the opinion and used it to stir up discontent and confusion among homeowners facing foreclosure. For a fraudster, whether an attorney in the business of charging a lot of money for sub-standard legal work or a real estate agent intent on sleazy deed scams, confusion is currency. A confused homeowner will storm out of the law office or community meeting of an attorney offering solid legal advice and come back only after learning the person who "guaranteed" to save their home and took $3000 never attended a single court date.
This being said, I am not against looking carefully at the facts of each case, every document involved in the case, and the law that applies. However, in litigation as in life, "no" often means "no."
Using a legitimate and final "no" to create confusion is the tactic currently in use by a fraudster circulating materials in Illinois that indicate summonses issued in Cook County are illegitimate because they are not signed by the Clerk.
Cook County is full of people, most of them lawyers. It is the home of largest unified court system in the United States. In the foreclosure area alone, upward of 100,000 cases are filed per year. Each case is, ideally, begun with a summons and complaint. The summons needs to be "signed" by the Clerk of Court. The problem is that the Clerk is an energetic woman, but hasn't yet mastered signing every summons in every case filed in each of Cook County's several courthouses. I mean, she's good--but she's no Linda Green.
A lawyer decided to make a big deal out of this and file some last-minute litigation to try to save the homes of people who admittedly were served with the summons and complaint but did not effectively respond to the lawsuit. The argument was that since the Clerk does not sign each summons individually but allows deputy clerks to affix a stamp and seal, she rendered each summons defective.
It is hard to imagine the scenario where the lawyer advancing this argument believed it was legally valid. Any lawyer who has ever filed a lawsuit in Cook County has seen the very same stamp and seal affixed to the summons he or she prepared. Although I think of myself as fighting on the side of right, I have filed many lawsuits with which someone out there (at least the defendant) disagreed. Time and again, I have walked my stamped-and-sealed summons to the Sheriff's office to be served.
The utter insincerity of challenging such a practice is hard to comprehend. However, the lawyer did not stop at the trial stage, where one of the most thorough judges to ever sit on the bench held the stamp and seal of the Clerk were valid. Instead, the case was appealed. Predictably, the appellate court sided with the plaintiff.
My own tastes aside, the courts exist for litigation, and asking the trial and appellate courts to decide issues is the role of the attorney. It seems the issue in the case was purely imaginary, but lawyers can disagree about these things and it is the role of judges to decide.
However, now, the party is doing the inexcusable: sending out mass email messages and maintaining a website encouraging people to contact the judges through a petition and to order their very own "Clerk Brown" stamp. The implication is that people should forge the Clerk's name.
This is an illegal action. Adding confusion the law and the process with these materials is inexcusable. People in foreclosure need real information, not utter stupidity aimed at causing them to fall prey to fraudsters.
Anyone receiving solicitations about this matter should report it to the Illinois Attorney General.
And, think twice before writing that check to the attorney with the great and novel legal theory. Good legal work is understandable, terms are defined in writing, and the sums charged are set forth clearly. If someone guarantees to save your home, I guarantee you are about to become the victim of fraud.
