The name of Steven J. Baum is not known
for its charity action. Still, the lack respect its employees show for
the homeowners in distress is outraging!
The “foreclosure mill” firm represents
banks and mortgage servicers who attempt to foreclose on and evict
homeowners and it managed to count all the giant mortgage lenders as
their clients.
Each year the firm throws a Halloween
party when employees wear costumes to the office and the party till
noon, and they return to work. Okay, you might say, everybody has the
right to party, so where is the problem?
The New York Times published some
snapshots from last year’s Halloween party and I got to say they are
outrageous! An inside man, a former Baum employee describes the feeling
of these parties: “There is really a cavalier attitude. It doesn’t
matter that people are going to lose their home.” And the firm isn’t
looking to help them to get mortgage modification: their only target is
to foreclose.
It is unbelievable: they earn their money
by suing these people, but that’s not enough: their lack of compassion
for these poor people gets unveiled on these parties. They offend them
by dressing as distressed homeowners and making fun on them.
And the photos are speaking for themselves, but The New York Times describes some of them:
In one, two Baum employees are dressed
like homeless people. One is holding a bottle of liquor. The other has a
sign around her neck that reads: “3rd party squatter. I lost my home
and I was never served.” My source said that “I was never served” is
meant to mock “the typical excuse” of the homeowner trying to evade a
foreclosure proceeding.
A second picture shows a coffin with a
picture of a woman whose eyes have been cut out. A sign on the coffin
reads: “Rest in Peace. Crazy Susie.”
A third photograph shows a corner of
Baum’s office decorated to look like a row of foreclosed homes. Another
shows a sign that reads, “Baum Estates” — needless to say, it’s also
full of foreclosed houses. Most of the other pictures show either mock
homeless camps or mock foreclosure signs — or both.
Looking at these pictures it is so
obvious that the law firm doesn’t care about you, distressed homeowner!
And they think they can wipe off their dubious legal practices by paying
some money.
MFY Legal Services and Harwood Feffer, a
large class-action firm, have filed a class-action suit claiming that
Steven J. Baum has consistently failed to file certain papers that are
necessary to allow for a state-mandated settlement conference that can
lead to a modification. Judge Arthur Schack of the State Supreme Court
in Brooklyn once described Baum’s foreclosure filings as “operating in a
parallel mortgage universe, unrelated to the real universe,” The New
York Times writes
A recent investigation led by the
Department of Justice over their foreclosure practices was set to
silence as Baum agreed to pay $2 million. The investigation found the
firm had filed misleading pleadings, affidavits, and mortgage
assignments in the state and federal courts in New York. But this
doesn’t matter now, as they will pay the amount, which means nothing to
this company. Question: will this settlement guarantee the transparency
of the law firm’s practices? Will this make them obey the law?