The New York Times has come down for multiple visits and written multiple stories. The Wall Street Journal and NPR were here. CNN was filming Monday and Tuesday, and Rolling Stone’s lengthy article hits the newsstands today.

The subject: Florida’s foreclosure courts. Or more specifically, the foreclosure court in Jacksonville.

The foreclosure mess — from the originating loans to the bundling, selling and reselling of the loans to the questionable tactics used in the foreclosures themselves — has been major news across the country recently. But nowhere is the light of attention shining brighter than it seems to be in Northeast Florida.

“It’s really escalated the last three or four weeks,” said Mark Kessler, who is in the 4th Circuit foreclosure court almost daily representing lenders.

“I’m being interviewed constantly,” said James Kowalski, a Jacksonville lawyer who has been defending mortgage foreclosures for 10 years now.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, Kowalski started the type of defense that “has sown confusion and turmoil in the housing market.”

Kowalski laughed at that representation, but did concede it has been defense lawyers who have brought the spotlight here.

“It’s because of Jacksonville Area Legal Aid,” he said, “and no other reason.”

And that would be April Charney, a Legal Aid staff attorney who has become a national spokeswoman against what she considers abuses by the plaintiffs in foreclosure cases.

“The focus on Duval,” she said, “is because of the lawyers willing to step up. Me, Jim Kowalski, Chip Parker.”

Add to the list Senior Circuit Judge A.C. Soud, the retired judge in charge of the 4th Circuit’s foreclosure court. He is the central character in the Rolling Stone article. The headline — “Courts Helping Banks Screw Over Customers” — leaves no doubt about where it’s coming from.

Not about 'saving the house'

Matt Taibbi, whose book on the financial crisis: “Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America” came out last week, paints Soud as clueless and Kessler as worse.

“There’s a definite point of view,” Kessler said. “I guess they decide 'We’ll make so-and-so to be the bad guy and rake him over the coals.' What doesn’t seem to get brought out is that most of these mortgages are two and three years in default.”

Kowalski did make national news after a case in Maine where a GMAC employee admitted preparing 10,000 foreclosure files a month that no one had reviewed, despite documents swearing that they had been. That led to GMAC and other lenders freezing foreclosures in some states to investigate what’s now commonly called “robo-signing.”

But the judge in the Maine case pointed out that GMAC had promised not to do that anymore after Kowalski found evidence of robo-signing in a deposition he had taken several years earlier.

It’s all part of securitization, Kowalski said of the bundling of mortgages into packages that can be bought and sold.

“Everything that’s going on here in Florida,” Kowalski said, “has been going on for the better part of the decade. It’s embedded in the concept of securitization. The robo-signers, the mill law firms, problems with process serving....”

The process, he said, was created to maximize profits and those who don’t get the foreclosures done quickly enough don’t get more business.

“It’s not about saving the house,” he said.

Another reason the national attention on foreclosure is picking up, he said, is that the bundling of mortgages and the sales of those bundles to trusts was not done correctly, leaving ownership of the mortgages in doubt. Not only are homeowners losing their homes, investors stand to lose billions, he said.

“They’re saying 'Wait a minute, we just realized that you sold us air.'”

Closed off from court

So as the media try to sort out the whole thing, they often find themselves in Florida, where the state began special foreclosure courts this summer. Staffed by retired judges, the so-called “rocket docket” is charged with clearing a backlog of foreclosure cases.

Soud has set a goal of resolving 25 cases an hour. Almost all, he said, are uncontested, and that allows them to move so quickly.

But Soud said he wasn’t sure why so much attention has been focused here.

“I’m speculating that when one story is out and the out-of-state media sees it,” he said. “I’ve had reporters start off with 'We saw your name.'”

That’s why Kessler figures a CNN producer gave him a call when the network came to town this week after seeing his name in either a Times-Union story or the Rolling Stone, which is available online.

Taibbi, the Rolling Stone writer, was accompanied to Soud’s courtroom on the fifth floor of the courthouse by Charney, and his visit produced its own drama. The media are allowed in the chambers, Soud said, but only with clearance. The judge’s access policy has drawn sharp criticism.

Soud was particularly unhappy that Taibbi followed a woman who was defending herself out of the courtroom and into the hall to interview her.

So in an e-mail to Charney, Soud threatened her with contempt.

“When you came this morning you did not have authority to take anyone back to chambers without proper screening. This policy is in effect for security reasons,” Soud wrote.

“Please do not repeat such conduct in the future. Your unprofessional conduct and apparent authorization that the reporter could pursue a property owner immediately out of Chambers into the hallway for an interview, may very well be sited (sic) for possible contempt in the future.”

David Goldman, an attorney who handles foreclosure defense, said that the foreclosure court is the only one where access is that limited.

“They even keep our employees out,” he said. “Yesterday, we had a paralegal who was kept out until the case was called and the lawyer went out to get her.

“They’re courts,” he said. “And they should be open. Anyone should be able to get in and observe.”

As for the Rolling Stone article, Soud said he’d never read the magazine and doesn’t intend to.

roger.bull@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4296

link: http://jacksonville.com/business/real-estate/2010-11-12/story/jacks...