Foreclosure law has grown immensely thanks to the recession. John Anastasio is an attorney at the Law Offices Of John Anastasio in Stuart, Florida. In practice since 1981, Anastasio is an expert in the fields of foreclosure defense and bankruptcy law. Here, he tells us about the massive growth he has seen in the area of foreclosure law.
For years, I have done foreclosure work for clients. But it wasn’t until this past year that I began seeing the sheer volume of work that now needs to be done. This is all due to the recession and what is going on in the current economic climate. In the past, as an attorney, I might have gotten one to four foreclosure cases that came through my door in a year. And even then, that seemed like a lot. But at that time, there was a completely different legal and factual climate, and economic environment, going on in the world.
In terms of my law practice, I used to have a general practice—and then all of a sudden the lines of credits and checks on the mortgages and the lines of credits and checks on the credit cards all dried up. It was so fast, too. Now 90% of my legal practice is focusing on the area of foreclosure defense. And this massive change has all been since the spring of 2009.
What separates me from some other attorneys out there claiming to specialize in the area of foreclosure defense is experience and expertise. I have personally spent around 300 hours attending seminars, doing legal research, and developing new techniques in regards to this area of foreclosure law. And I did this to be able to represent my clients in the best possible way.
The truth is, 99% of the lawyers who prosecute these foreclosure claims for the banks don’t even know what they are doing. Oftentimes, they will delay the case while they are still looking foe the right paperwork. Meanwhile 99% of the lawyers who defend homeowners in these cases don’t know what they are doing, either. So once again, they’ll simply delay the case for as long as possible and call that a defense. That isn’t a defense. They are not doing their proper homework.
What I can do for clients is build a strong defense that will get them the best possible outcome in a situation. I look at each client’s global financial future and work with him to try and determine which defense is going to be best for each specific case.
