Lawyers Being Trained On Foreclosure Related Issues

Posted in Foreclosure, March 31st, 2008 |

Forsyth County is witnessing as many as 50 foreclosures per week. The regional manager of Legal Aid, North Carolina, Hazel Mack-Hilliard comments that she has seen this rise in number of foreclosures during the last five years. The people have been sandwiched between rising mortgage rates and cost of living. It has a chain reaction on children and unspeakable suffering and tension for the entire family when one has to be uprooted from home and hearth.

Besides the financial debacle there are other forms of negative effects. Every 1% of foreclosure equates to 2% to 3% increase in crime – violent crime within a specified radius (0.8 miles) of that foreclosure zone. This came from the mouth of none other that the Forsyth District Attorney, Tom Keith. Keith is all for the local attorneys attending a training session being organized by Legal Aid and the Academy of Trial Lawyers. They need to updated about the sub-prime lending markets, its possible abuses and methods of negotiation when foreclosure threatens. That is the main objective – how the loans can be modified so that the people can continue to stay in the houses that are their homes. It is an undeniable fact that foreclosures are attacking all and sundry everywhere irrespective of income brackets.

A few years ago Terri Martin could not resist a chance to move into a house of one’s own. Today a granddaughter has been added to the family. But meanwhile the interest rate has gone up by 14%. As soon as she started to live in the house the mortgage kept rising. Then the original lenders sold the loan to another company. That did not stop the loan from rising. Finally when pushed to her limits she sought the help of Legal Aid and managed to modify her loan to a fixed rate mortgage. When no other help was available Legal Aid stood beside her. Attorney Celeste Harris opines that each attorney can help the foreclosure victims in a small way that will go a long way to alleviate the stress on the individual and the nation.

The foreclosure crisis is affecting all sections of the society – the borrowers, lenders as well as the community and the administration starting from the local to the federal. If the nation has to survive mere appeals to the lenders will not work miracles – what is required is strong legal action.