Banks And Lawyers
When there is a default and the home is scheduled for a foreclosure sale, it is published in the local Legal News with the phone number of the lawyer representing the bank. When I call this number, how much cooperation can I expect from the lawyer? Can/Will they tell me how much in arrears the account is? What other info can I get from the lawyers?
Well I hate to say this of course but it depends on the lawyer and it depends on the bank. My experience is that the lawyer's co-operativeness depends on several factors:
1) he is more likely to be co-operative if he's not a specialist in foreclosures. In practice this means if the county he practices in is relatively small town or rural.
2) he is more likely to be co-operative if the bank he works for is smaller. A guy specializing in foreclosures of HUD loans for one of those mortgage factory banks is likely to be just as mindless drone-like as everybody else in those places.
3)he is more likely to be co-operative if the defendant looks like hes going to put up a good fight.
4)he is more likely to be co-operative if you can speak at least a little "lawyer" without a strange accent. This is, of course, a little known dialect of english spoken only by the members of the lawyer tribe. They are an extreemly isolated cultural sub-group who have developed this dialect as a result of hundreds of years of social separation from "polite" culture. What do lawyers use as birth control? Their personalities.
5) he is more likely to be co-operative if you treat him with the respect he feels he deserves as a member of the Profession. In other words, if all you want to know is how much the account is in arrears don't interrupt him to ask without a very polite introduction, etc. You are much better off to meet him at the courtroom at some early stage of the process, when the file is in his hand, and ask such a question than to interrupt him in his lair, oops, I mean office, and make him go get the file.
6) he is more likely to be co-operative if he thinks he is negotiating with you to get his client out of a sticky situation than if you seem to be the advisary. Lawyers are strongly encouraged to settle all their cases. If he sees talking to you as a potential way to settle he'll be glad to talk..
Oh, one more thing. Off all the people in the typical foreclosure suit the banks attny is the one I personally most like to talk to. He's not emotionally involved (like the defendant) and, as a rule, hes not a bureacratic drone (like almost everyone you will talk to at the bank). If I was making a short sale pitch the guy I'd pitch first is the banks attny.