Top-rated Foreclosure Attorneys List: Avoid Bankruptcy and Homelessness

There is a spike in foreclosure cases. Bankruptcy and foreclosure lawyers are being inundated with new cases. Web sites offering information on foreclosure are also seeing a spike of traffic.

Find a list of Foreclosure and Business Attorneys



Here is what is being reported by many of these sites:

"When the government can't help, a good lawyer sometimes can. The attorneys seeing the largest spikes in business are those who help homeowners handle foreclosures or assist banks and property owners in collecting unpaid mortgages. Eric Appleton, a foreclosure attorney in Tampa who is among the most highly rated in his field on Avvo.com, had more foreclosure cases in a single day recently than he had seen in a whole month last year. "People are most definitely going online to find lawyers to defend themselves against foreclosures," says Appleton, who often represents condominium associations. "It's not uncommon for us to get 10 to 15 mortgage foreclosure [cases] in a single day."


Attorney: David Leen
Law Firm: David Leen & Associates, Seattle, Wa.
Education: University of Oregon School of Law, 1971
Expertise: Represents individuals in foreclosure, predatory lending, fraud, and real estate cases

Attorney: Eric Appleton
Law Firm: Bush Ross, Tampa
Education: University of Florida J.D., 1998
Expertise: Represents Florida property owners and community associations in disputes with lenders and home owners

Attorney: Robert S. Bernstein
Law Firm: Bernstein Law Firm, Pittsburgh
Education: Duquesne University J.D., 1981
Expertise: Bankruptcy law, creditors' rights law


Attorney: David Leibowitz
Law Firm: LakeLaw Bankruptcy Center, Chicago
Education: Loyola University School of Law, 1974
Expertise: Consumer bankruptcy, mortgage defense


Attorney: Steven H. Mezer
Law Firm: Bush Ross, Tampa
Education: Stetson University College of Law, 1977
Expertise: Real estate litigation, foreclosures, collection of assessments, and deed-restriction enforcement


Attorney: Joseph Moldovan
Law Firm: Morrison Cohen, New York City
Education: Brooklyn Law School, 1982
Expertise: Bankruptcy and creditor/debtor rights


Attorney: Paul Riffel
Law Firm: Paul Riffel, Tampa
Education: Stetson University College of Law, 1982
Expertise: Bankruptcy court, family law, real estate

Attorney: Stephen W. Sather
Law Firm: Barron, Newburger, Sinsley & Wier, Houston and Austin
Education: University of Texas School of Law, 1986
Expertise: Bankruptcy law

Find a list of Foreclosure and Business Attorneys

Attorney: Jonathan Stein
Law Firm: Jonathan G. Stein, Elk Grove, Calif.
Education: McGeorge School of Law, 2002
Expertise: Consumer debt

Attorney: Mervin Waage
Law Firm: Waage & Waage, Denton, Tex.
Education: Southern Methodist University
Expertise: Bankruptcy, debt

What You Can Do to Avoid Foreclosures: Foreclosures Prevention Tools and Other Ways to Get out of Financial Funk

Questions on Foreclosures Answered Here:

What You Can Do to Avoid Foreclosures: Foreclosures Prevention Tools and Other Ways to Get out of Financial Funk

President Bush recently announced that the Federal Housing Administration will begin a program to allow homeowners who have good credit but can not afford their mortgages to refinance to FHA-insured mortgages. In the meantime, there are a few things you can do to avoid foreclosure on your property. Any homeowners should start taking matters in their own hands. Way before foreclosure is lurking around, they need to start consulting with their lawyers or credit counselors. The easiest thing they can do is to contact their mortgage lender. Who else knows better than the mortgage borrowers themselves? They need to call the loan servicer before they start falling behind. It will be pretty hard to catch up once payments are late.

Here are a few ways to avoid foreclosure: Refinancing may be considered if you have enough equity in the home. Even if you do not have equity, try it any way. The process may be more difficult though. You can persuade the lender to modify the terms of the loan. You can sell the house of file for bankruptcy protection as in filing Chapter 13. There is no easy way out. No easy option for sure. Homeowners who are facing foreclosure should never ignore letter from lenders. They must try to update their phone records in case the lenders want to contact them. Borrowers or homeowners should remember that the banks or lenders or investors do not want to own your own. They do not want to declare foreclosure on your property because of all the costs and time involved. All you have to do is to make a good gesture. They need to know that you are not going to run away and that they can keep your words.

Homeowners can look for some resources such as the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, which has aligned itself iwth Citigroup and Bank of Ameirca to pledge $1 billion for people at risk of losing their homes. They can contact the department of housing and Urban development, Freddie Mac's guide to avoiding foreclosures, NeighborWorks America's Center for Foreclosure Solutions and the Federal Trade Commission's fact sheet "Mortgage Payments Sending You Reeling? Here's what to do."

Lenders can also make arrangements for a forbearance or repayment plan. A forbearance is a suspension or reduction of monthly payments until the borrower regains financial footing. With a repayment plan, the missed payments are spread out over time. The borrower has to pay them in addition to the regular mortgage. Borrowers can also look at "short sale" which is an arrangement in which the lender allows the sale of the property for less than is owed. This process may take some time too. Not too many lenders are willing to do this. Patience will pay off in the end. Cash-strapped borrowers may think about a "deed in lieu of foreclosure." That means that the lender is given ownership rights without the shame of a foreclosure.

Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance's Home is For Sale: Get to Know The Home

Are you ready to buy this home for $6 million? It is worth every penny. Find out why the couple is selling. They have twins through a surrogate. So they have more needs.

The compound they are selling has a 5,000-square-foot main house, built in 1940, with five bedrooms and six bathrooms. It has such features as a hair salon, a gourmet kitchen, an elegant foyer, a master-bedroom suite and parklike grounds. The couple added a detached 2,500-square-foot building that has an office, gym and guest quarters.

Who is Angela Bassett?

Bassett, whose breakthrough role was playing Tina Turner, starred opposite Laurence Fishburne in the movie "Akeelah and the Bee" (2006). She also appeared opposite Whoopi Goldberg in "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" (1998).

Get more housing news at California's Open House Boom

Find all the Great Homes of Distinction with Reduced Prices in California at Great Homes of Distinction at Reduced Prices

Homebuilders Offer Mortgage only to Push It Down The Throats of Unsuspecting Buyers who Can Not Afford It

The reckoning time has arrived. Homebuilders have created a monster that wants to swallow their business. It has also created a major headache for many ordinary folks.

Many observers are now saying that it was written the boom would come to an end. It was just a matter of time. In addition to banks and conventional lenders, homebuilders entered the prosperous field of mortgage to make money. The result are half-completed, half-empty houses and subdivisions all over California and the Central Valley.

In addition to spitting out subdivisions, many of which now stand half-empty, builders jumped into the mortgage business to a degree they never had. Wall Street provided the same encouragement it offered other lenders. Even as the housing supply began to exceed demand last year, builders kept sales brisk by pushing adjustable-rate, interest-only, and other risky loans. In some cases they attracted clientele who couldn't afford conventional mortgages. In others, builders allegedly violated federal lending standards to get customers to sign on the dotted line. KB Home (KBH ) paid a record $3.2 million settlement in July, 2005, to resolve allegations by the Housing & Urban Development Dept. that the builder's mortgage unit overstated borrowers' income, among other practices, to obtain loan approvals. KB, which denied wrongdoing, sold its loan business before settling.

Additional Resources:

California, Central Valley's Hot Home Bargains

No Health benefits, No Severance Package, Nothing: American Home Mortgage Investment Corporation Closed Its Door

The rumors turned to founded news. They also turned to fears for many of American Home Mortgage employees who received their last check on this fateful day. No benefits, no severance package. Nothing. Yet, they have mortgage to pay too. There is no way they could see this coming. Workers were cleaning their cubes and offices. Many observers attributed the company’s undoing to the weakening of the real estate market and of the secondary mortgage market, the commerce in financial instruments built from bundled mortgage obligations, which was American Home Mortgage’s specialty.

Now many homeowners who have their mortgage through this company have to find a new one. American Home Mortgage bailed out or checked out.

Find more housing news at Openhouselead.

Flippers, Speculators Cause Housing Slump in Las Vegas, Florida and Elsewhere

Frenzied flipping and speculation leave many housing markets and builders with a large inventory of homes to get rid of. For a long time, the housing market was on steroids. It was high time that the correction got started. Long gone are the days when people were spending nights in parking lots with TV, snacks and drinks in the company of thousands of people doing the same thing. They wanted to have their place in line towards the purchase of a home which they intended to get rid of immediately. No, it was not the release of a hot movie or a video game. Flippers took over the markets in Las Vegas and Florida. They waited in line for hours. They wanted to purchase and cash out of it soon. When the home prices took a dip, many investors were left with homes they could not afford. Many of them abandoned their downpayments or deposits. Those who had already completed the deal end up filing for foreclosures. Financial disaster was the name of the game. New home builders had to adjust in order to not add to the glut of homes on the market.