11th Circuit Court

‘Foreclosure Mill’ Law Firms Under Pressure from Lawmakers

As JPMorgan Chase and Ally Financial’s GMAC Mortgage have acknowledged possible document irregularities concerning thousands of mortgage foreclosure cases and imposed temporary freezes on the litigation, some federal lawmakers have been trying to put the brakes on law firms that reportedly are responsible for filing many cases that may be…

Sep 30, 2010 12:00 AM CDT

Acquitted in 2009 Federal Drug Case, Ga. Lawyer Is Arrested Anew by State Authorities

Acquitted less than a year ago in a federal drug and money-laundering case, after being accused of accepting drug money for legal fees, a Georgia lawyer has been arrested again. But this time the case is being pursued by the state. Mark Shelnutt allegedly was caught on audio- and videotape…

Sep 24, 2010 11:28 PM CDT

11th Circuit Must Decide: Did Lawyer with TB Plead a Sufficient Case Against CDC?

A lawyer who found himself at the center of an international furor after traveling with what was originally publicly proclaimed to be a highly contagious form of tuberculosis is fighting to revive a lawsuit against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention alleging that the CDC violated his privacy by…

Sep 15, 2010 7:07 PM CDT

Law Student Who Flunked Out of Florida Coastal Loses Disability Appeal

A former law student who sued Florida Coastal School of Law for failing to accommodate her depression and other disabilities has lost her federal appeal. The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit filed by Judith Meisenhelder, who suffered from depression, migraine headaches…

Sep 15, 2010 1:00 PM CDT

Lawyer Gets Nearly 4 Years in Fraud Case Over Refi of His Own Home

A Hollywood, Fla., lawyer was sentenced to three years and 10 months in federal prison for embezzling $1.6 million in loan proceeds, including $1 million in a refinancing of his own home. Instead of paying off the prior lender on his home as he claimed to have done, however, Peter…

Aug 30, 2010 11:14 PM CDT

SCOTUS Nixes Effort By ‘Birther’ Attorney Orly Taitz to Avoid $20K Fine

Fined $20,000 for pursuing what a federal judge in Georgia determined to be a frivolous claim that President Barack Obama is not a U.S. citizen and hence unqualified to serve in that office, so-called birther attorney Orly Taitz reportedly may have intended to seek a stay of the stunning financial…

Aug 16, 2010 9:28 PM CDT

Lawsuit Blames Accounting Firm for $450M in Bankrupt Rothstein Law Firm Losses

A lawsuit seeking $450 million has been filed against an accounting firm that worked with the now-bankrupt South Florida law firm formerly operated by now-convicted Ponzi schemer and ex-attorney Scott Rothstein. A trustee overseeing the Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler bankruptcy contends in the suit, among other allegations, that Berenfeld Spritzer Schechter…

Aug 5, 2010 9:53 PM CDT

‘Like Hamsters in a Cage’: Foreclosure Firm Cut Corners to Make Money, Story Says

Junk fees, corner-cutting and an indifference to human misery helped a Florida lawyer make a mint in a high-volume foreclosure practice, reports Mother Jones in an unflattering profile of the legal industry enforcing bank mortgage rights. Largely focusing on attorney David Stern, the lengthy Mother Jones article says one opposing…

Aug 4, 2010 11:05 PM CDT

RICO Suit Seeks Billions from David Stern and His Foreclosure-Mill Law Firm

A racketeering lawsuit seeking class action status and, potentially, up to billions of dollars in damages has been filed against a Florida lawyer and his foreclosure-mill law firm. Also named as a defendant is a bank-created company that, the complaint alleges, owned a criminal enterprise which operated to violate homeowners’…

Jul 30, 2010 6:55 PM CDT

Small Law Firm’s Big Back Office Delayed News of Less Work, Securities Suit Contends

A high-volume Florida foreclosure practitioner has been an early adopter of a businesslike model of law practice, in which a back-office company handles much of the litigation preparation work for his law firm. Now David J. Stern is also an early example of the potential pitfalls that can arise in…

Jul 28, 2010 6:34 PM CDT

11th Circuit Upholds 3-Year Term for Actor Wesley Snipes on 3 Misdemeanor Tax Counts

Saying that a federal district judge in Florida had discretion to sentence Wesley Snipes the maximum term, a federal appeals court has upheld the actor’s three consecutive one-year sentences on three misdemeanor counts of willfully failing to file a tax return. Snipes reportedly owes the Internal Revenue Service some $17…

Jul 19, 2010 6:13 PM CDT

US Labor Dept. Files ERISA Suit Against Eichholz Law Firm and Ex-CEO

The U.S. Department of Labor sued a Georgia personal injury firm and its former chief executive officer this week, contending that they improperly transferred, lent or used retirement plan assets in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. In addition to seeking reimbursement of the missing money, the Savannah…

Jul 16, 2010 4:52 PM CDT

7 Cops, 2 Lawyers & 1 FBI Agent Charged in Claimed $16M Mortgage Fraud

Seven current or former police officers, two real estate closing attorneys and an agent for the FBI are among the defendants federally charged in a claimed South Florida mortgage fraud that allegedly involved false information provided to lenders to obtain $16.5 million in loans. Six of the officers are from…

Jul 14, 2010 2:52 PM CDT

Ex-Lawyer Gets 5 Years for Swindling Clients Out of $4.3M

A now-disbarred Georgia lawyer was sentenced today to five years and three months in federal prison for swindling clients out of $4.3 million. M. Dewey Bain, 59, must also pay restitution for the money he took from clients, promising to hold their money in trust and invest it safely but…

Jul 7, 2010 7:47 PM CDT

Rosenfeldt Takes 5th re Depo Questions About His Pay at Rothstein Law Firm

Stuart Rosenfeldt was a co-partner of Scott Rothstein in the now-shuttered Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler. But he essentially knew nothing about the South Florida law firm’s financial operations, Rosenfeldt said in a deposition today, according to the This Just In blog of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Paid $6 million in 2008…

Jul 2, 2010 10:06 PM CDT