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January/February 2013

Using the Judicial System to Abate the Foreclosure Crisis

January/February 2013

Using the Judicial System to Abate the Foreclosure Crisis By Adam Leitman Bailey, Rachel Sigmund

By Adam Leitman Bailey and Rachel Sigmund
This article describes how several states have addressed one of the primary obstacles to mortgage foreclosures during the past several years: lenders’ inability to locate the original mortgage documents.

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Features
  • Using the Judicial System to Abate the Foreclosure Crisis
  • By Adam Leitman Bailey and Rachel Sigmund
    • By Adam Leitman Bailey and Rachel Sigmund
    This article describes how several states have addressed one of the primary obstacles to mortgage foreclosures during the past several years: lenders’ inability to locate the original mortgage documents.
  • The Domestic Asset Protection Trust: Combining It with the Double LLC Strategy
  • By Steven J. Oshins
    • By Steven J. Oshins
    If a domestic asset protection trust were set up under the laws of a non-DAPT jurisdiction, the general rule is that the settlor’s creditors can access as much of the trust as can be distributed to the trust settlor, but by combining the DAPT with the Double LLC strategy, a client should be in a much stronger position to negotiate a more favorable settlement or not have to face the creditor at all.
  • When Is a Commission Due? Problems with Broker Listing Agreements
  • By Roger Bernhardt and Dale A. Whitman
    • By Roger Bernhardt and Dale A. Whitman
    Real estate brokers and property owners can both benefit from carefully considering the terms of a listing agreement to ensure that the seller is not liable for the broker’s commission unless the sale closes but protecting the broker against a seller whose willful action prevent the sale.
  • Shutting Down a “Fiduciary” Who Is Misusing Trust Assets
  • By Daniel Ebner
    • By Daniel Ebner
    When bad fiduciaries need to be sued, they (and their bad lawyers) are not likely to just let litigation play out and responsibly preserve trust assets until there is a final judgment on the merits. Rather, bad fiduciaries will misappropriate trust assets while using their lawyers and the legal process to make their removal and restitution to the trust prohibitively expensive and time consuming.
  • Economic Development Funds and Taxation: Is There a Means to Tax Free Non-owner Contributions?
  • By C. Arthur Robinson II
    • By C. Arthur Robinson
    IRC § 118 typically makes government economic development funds tax-free to corporations, but not to other types of business entities; however, given the origins of this exclusion, limitation of the tax-free treatment to corporations is not justified and the exclusion should be available to other types of business entities.
  • Selecting a Successor Trustee - Why the Usual Suspects May Not Be Your Best Choice
  • By Richard E. Llewellyn II
    • By Richard E. Llewellyn II
    Settlors of revocable living trusts invariably select themselves as the initial trustees, but it is the selection of a successor trustee that usually provokes a discussion.
  • The Real Estate Finance Opinion Report of 2012: History and Summary
  • By Edward J. Levin
    • By Edward J. Levin
    The 2012 Real Estate Finance Opinion Report provides a comprehensive guide to the current customary practice for the giving and receiving of opinion letters in real estate-secured transactions and provides a valuable resource not only for borrower’s counsel but also for anyone involved in such transactions.
  • When Worlds Collide: The Interplay Between Family Law and Probate Administration
  • By John J. Pankauski
  • By John J. Pankauski
    Probate practitioners should be mindful of the unique contractual, agreed, or court-ordered rights and privileges of surviving spouses, former spouses, and heirs when a decedent passes having been exposed to either a marital agreement or divorce proceeding.

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