Consumer

New York Times Article:

[link]

Chicago Tribune article:

[link]

The Institute for Foreclosure Legal Assistance, a project of the
Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) and managed by the National
Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA), is accepting applications
for foreclosure legal assistance grants for fiscal year 2009.

Funding is specifically earmarked to hire attorneys and legal support

Helping Low-Income Tenants Avoid Post-Foreclosure Evictions

The Editorial Team of Clearinghouse Review: Journal of Poverty Law and
Policy, published by the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty
Law, invites you to attend this free, 75-minute webinar on Thursday,
October 2, 2008, at 11 a.m. Pacific time, noon Mountain time, 1 p.m.

Is this a case where the scammer took title to the property? And his name
doesn't show up on the county property records on other properties?
If that's true, the only other suggestion I have is to check with your
secretary of state to see if he has any companies, llc's, etc., that he does
business as and then check your county property records again. if still

We're considering filing a suit for damages against a foreclosure scam
artist whose actions helped to render our clients homeless. However,
we're somewhat pressed for resources and so it would be easier for us
to take the case if we knew we were going to be bringing down a
defendant who's victimized other vulnerable homeowners.

Prepared by the Citizens Housing and Planning Association, this
helpful summary, dated July 28, 2008, covers major bill provisions
related to affordable housing, counseling, and foreclosure
prevention.

[link]

The CLEARINGHOUSE REVIEW Editorial Team of the Sargent Shriver
National Center on Poverty Law will be hosting a free foreclosure
webinar on Thursday, October 2, 2008, at 11 a.m. Pacific time; 1:00
p.m. Central time; 2:00 p.m. Eastern time. The topic will be
protecting tenants from foreclosure in judicial and nonjudicial

Federal Home Foreclosure Bill Offers Aid to Low-Income Rental Housing,
Too; by Kate Walz, Senior Staff Attorney, Sargent Shriver National
Center on Poverty Law

[link]

On Jul 31, 12:40 pm, Catherine Dorn Schreiber

I uploaded an "Initial Client Interview Checklist" that I wrote for
use in foreclosure rescue scam cases a few years ago. Several legal
services providers here in Washington State use the form, and our
state Dept. of Financial Institutions accepts it as a way of
submitting a complaint (although I wouldn't generally recommend using

Robert Doggett, an attorney with Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, is the
author of Foreclosure Buzz, a noncommercial blog that provides general
information on the foreclosure crisis facing the United States. For
more information, see [link].

Click on [link]
- or copy & paste it into your browser's address bar if that doesn't
work.

Click on [link]
- or copy & paste it into your browser's address bar if that doesn't
work.

Have you used foreclosure case screening tools at your organization?
If so, have you found them useful? What recomendations do you have for
advocates interested in setting up a screening tool? If you have
sample screening tools that you would like to share with other
advocates, please reply with a link or attachment.

For any of you out there who have taken advantage of the f/c plaintiff
lack-of-standing-to-sue argument, a la the Ohio cases, I'm wondering
what leverage you have gained/what additional outcomes (e.g., better
loan mods) you may have achieved by asserting (and prevailing on the
issue of) lack of standing, if you have. Thanks.

By: Gary A. Ritacco St. John’s Law Student American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review Staff   The Fifth Circuit, in Nowlin v. Peake (In re Nowlin),[1] recently held that reasonably certain future events that will have an effect on a chapter 13 debtor’s financial state should be taken into account in confirming a debtor’s proposed payment plan.[2] The Fifth Circuit reached this conclusion by determining the phrase “projected disposable income” in section 1325(b)(1)(B) can have a different meaning than “disposable income” under 1325(b)(2).[3]  

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In July 2009, Attorney General Martha Coakley reached a settlement with Emerson College concerning Emerson’s student lending practices. Under this settlement, over 3,000 Emerson students have already received payments totaling over half a million dollars. However, the Attorney General’s Office is still seeking current contact information for over 700 current and former students who have yet to receive a settlement check. This applies to both Emerson graduate and undergraduate students. Eligible students are those who; borrowed Stafford loans from either Citizens Bank or Chase for academic years 2004-2005, 2005-2006 or 2006-2007 Or borrowed private loans from Education Finance Partners (EFP)... Massachusetts Attorney General

In July 2009, Attorney General Martha Coakley reached a settlement with Emerson College concerning Emerson’s student lending practices.  Under this settlement, over 3,000 Emerson students have already received payments totaling over half a million dollars.  However, the Attorney General’s Office is still seeking current contact information for over 700 current and former students who have yet to receive a settlement check.  This applies to both Emerson graduate and undergraduate students. Eligible students are those who;

• borrowed Stafford loans from either Citizens Bank or Chase for academic years 2004-2005, 2005-2006 or 2006-2007

Or

• borrowed private loans from Education Finance Partners (EFP) for academic years 2005-2006 or 2006-2007.

If you are eligible under these conditions, the Attorney General’s Office urges you to contact the Attorney General’s Insurance & Financial Services Division at 1-888-830-6277 by April 15, 2010.

Not an Emerson student, but looking to reduce tuition costs?

As tuition costs continue to rise, it is becoming increasingly more difficult for students and their parents to afford higher education. However, the IRS is currently offering the American Opportunity credit that can be claimed for 2009 or 2010 and can help alleviate the monetary strains involved with paying for higher education.  This new credit modifies the existing Hope Credit to make it available to more taxpayers and now applies not only to tuition costs, but also to required course materials and computers.  Students with incomes $80,000 or less can qualify for up to $2,500 a year.  For more information about the American Opportunity credit, visit the IRS website.

Contributed by Darius Schwarz, Public Affairs Intern with the Washington State Attorney General's Office

For millions across the globe, the idiosyncratic practice of updating one’s status on Facebook or Twitter has become a ubiquitous component of everyday life. We want our friends to know what we’re up to and we, in turn, are interested in what they’re doing. Going to Orange County next week for vacation? Let us know! We may want mouse ears with our name stitched on them. Off to the new martini bar that just opened in the cool part of town? Tell your friends! They might want to meet up with you there.

On the surface, updates about our whereabouts seem like fairly innocuous tidbits about our lives. But their crux is the same across the board: You’re announcing, “I’m not home.”

To serve as a reminder (or more aptly a wakeup call) about how much one actually divulges when posting about specific whereabouts, the Web site PleaseRobMe.com was launched last month. Compiling Twitter updates logged through location-sharing sites such as Foursquare, the site automatically captures posts and assembles them chronologically into a lengthy register referred to as “Recent Empty Homes.”

Some examples:

USER:  “I’m at NCsoft West (1501 4th Ave, Floor 20, Seattle).”
USER:  “I’m at Apple Store (3710 Route 9 South, Freehold).”
USER:  “I’m at Starbucks - Marina/Chestnut (2132 Chestnut St, at Scott, San Francisco).”

Most savvy users only share their whereabouts from location-sharing sites with an approved list of friends. However, there are scores of others who post these updates directly to their Twitter profiles that are often viewable to the world.

This is not to say the popularity of sites like Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt have created a rash of burglaries. The FBI’s cyber division reports it has yet to be made aware of a single home break-in case stemming from a person sharing their location in cyberspace. Still, at least one Twitter user believes his messages led to a home burglary.

Regardless, the overlying theme of PleaseRobMe.com remains important.

As information is shared at an increasingly explosive rate in venues across the Internet, it is easy to get lulled into a sense of security. While you may consider yourself cognizant about what you are saying online and to whom, your brief message can still be telling someone you do not know something you do not want.

As Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna told MSNBC, “It’s very easy to find people, even with unlisted phone numbers. And you should not assume that just because you use some kind of alias on your Twitter account that someone won’t be able to figure out who you are and where you live.”

So take an extra moment before clicking "Share"; your friends will still be jealous you’re on your way to a Lady Gaga show.

Maybe.

By: Matthew S. Smith
St. John’s Law Student American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review Staff   Recently, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York in In re Charter Commc’ns held that a creditor’s adversary proceeding for an alleged pre-petition breach of contract was one over which the bankruptcy court could exercise its “core” jurisdiction.[1] In deciding whether the creditor’s claims fell within its core jurisdiction, the court was guided by 28 U.S.C. § 157,[2] which provides a list of matters that are characterized as “core proceedings.”[3]  The creditor, JPMorgan, alleged that debtor, Charter, had committed non-curable, nonmonetary pre-petition defaults under a pre-petition contract, which would prevent Charter from being able to take additional loans as originally provided in their Credit Agreement.[4] Since JPMorgan refused to consent to adjudication in the bankruptcy court, the court focused on “the close interconnection between the adversary proceeding [at issue] and the bankruptcy process.”[5] The court found that the nature of plaintiff JPMorgan’s proceeding directly affected the confirmation of debtor Charter’s chapter 11 bankruptcy plan – a core administrative function of the bankruptcy court – and thus held that the matter came within the court’s core jurisdiction.[6]  

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Though taking out the trash and recycling is probably already a weekly chore designated to someone in your household, do you know how to safely dispose of your toxic trash like batteries and plastic rings from soda bottles? The lack of clear instructions that come with how to dispose of these items may leave many yearning environmentalists frustrated and tempted to throw the junk out in the trash. However, this can have many harmful effects on the environment, including polluting drinking water and contaminating ground soil. Below are common household items that can release toxins into the environment. For a... Massachusetts Attorney General