If you've closed a loan during the run up to the housing bubble, say from 2001-2007, there's a good chance that you have problems in your mortgage documents. By problems, I mean there's likely evidence of predatory lending or violations of Truth In Lending (TILA) or the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) within your documents.
I've audited quite a few loans and I've seen violations of these laws in some form in everyone's paperwork. Recently, I uncovered evidence of appraisal fraud in a client's paperwork.
Homeowners, do your homework before hiring a loan modification company. Get a loan audit before you retain an attorney or hire a loan modification company and understand your options. If you sign a loan modification agreement, you waive any claims you might have under TILA and RESPA, which might entitle you to an even better modification than you could have obtained through an loan modification company.
If you have any questions or need a loan audit, please contact me at christine@desertedgelegal.com.
Thanks,
Christine
If you've read my previous posts about tickets, you know by now that the judge in Scottsdale Municipal Court dismissed the unsafe lane change ticket and reduced my fine to speeding only. Although I was disappointed, I managed to move on and forget about the ticket.
Until October 17, when the postal worker showed up at my front door with a certified letter from Sergeant George. Guess what? He sent me a letter saying he was REFILING my speeding ticket!
Hello, double jeopardy anyone?
Since the officer had already sent me the ticket, I called him and left him a message, and left a message for his supervisor as well. I was so angry about the situation and wasn't sure how to proceed. I called an attorney, who suggested I go to Scottsdale walk-in court. (On a side note, walk-in court is a great idea! A judge is there for walk-ins, which makes it easy to get things accomplished!)
I went to the Scottsdale Municipal Court again to see a judge. Because the ticket was not yet in the system, the court clerk couldn't get me in front of a judge. The court services supervisor was really nice and told me that the police officer could not re-file the traffic ticket and to check back with her a week later so she could get it removed from the system.
Later on that day, I spoke with Sergeant George's supervisor, Sergeant Durrin. He was very professional and was pretty cool about the situation. He told me that Sergeant George probably thought that the traffic ticket was dismissed due to a clerical error and when that happens, the tickets are re-filed. Unbelievable that this happens, but.....
His supervisor told me that he made a mistake and that the ticket would be removed from the system. I told him it wasn't a mistake because the officer was standing in the same courtroom as I was when the judge told him he had not met the burden of proof.
I contacted ABC 15 through my friend Charlotte Risch (www.themediapush.com). Christina Boomer contacted me about doing a story on the ticket being refiled. It made the news on Thursday. You can watch the video here:
http://www.abc15.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoId=16929@knxv.dayport.com&navCatId=3
I think this might be finally over!
Christine
I've received quite a few e-mails from readers asking about my adventures in Scottsdale Municipal Court. When I last wrote, I mentioned that I would be headed to the Police Department to make a records request.
I visited the Scottsdale Police Department on October 3 and made a very broad records request from the police department. If you want to see the items I asked for, please send me an e-mail and I'll be happy to share. I still haven't received the documents from the SPD, but they have called to say that they are ready. I'll tell you why later on in this entry.
On October 15, 2008 I showed up for court, along with three or four other offenders who were stopped by the same police officer. By the way, his name is Sergeant George. Another person who appeared to fight her ticket said that she'd read that he was rookie of the year in 2005 and said that he told her not to bother appearing in court because "he always shows up and he always wins."
I wore a suit and carried a briefcase. (By the way, if you ever appear in court, you should always show respect for the court and wear a suit. I learned this from the various attorneys I've worked for over the years. At the very least, wear something conservative and make sure you look presentable.) If you're going to be taken seriously, you should look like you mean business.
I was prepared to win a dismissal of both tickets. I had a copy of my clean driving record, I did all the research on radar and its flaws, how often the police department is supposed to have the radar devices calibrated and how often the officers are supposed to recertify. I also had photos of the scene of the ticket.
All the defendants went inside the courtroom and watched a video on the hearing procedures. To my surprise, the judge would allow hearsay in the court.
I was the second defendant to have a hearing. I was nervous beyond belief, and let me tell you that the judge was tough! I'm not sure if I had a law degree if it would have been easier. I tried to get both tickets dismissed first because the Police Department had not given me the records I'd requested. Also to my surprise, the judge informed me that I was not entitled to a records request under the Administrative Procedures Act.
If you're going to defend yourself in court, forget about wasting your time collecting the police department records. The judge doesn't care. I also tried to admit a certified copy of my clean driving record and she told me point blank that she didn't care about that either.
So, after Sergeant George finished reading from his court notes, I started cross examining him. I had eight pages of cross examination questions and I grilled the officer about his use of the radar, his experience and traning, especially on the use of radar, and other things. A couple of times, the judge stopped me from asking the questions.
Sergeant George became very defensive on the stand. He was a little sensitive when I told him that the NHTSA recommends that police officers be certified every year on the use of radar and that they don't recommend using the internal calibration setting on the radar guns. This guy was clearly not used to being cross examined by someone who was actually prepared. Sergeant George couldn't explain how I could have possibly been going 37 mph if the traffic was moving at 25 mph.
The judge finally told me to wrap up my case and make my final arguments. I had one more thing to bring up, and that was the photos. I showed the judge the photos of the scene, told her that Sergeant George made a mistake and radared me outside of the school zone in front of Chapparal High School and wrote the ticket in the speed zone. The clincher here was the photo of the "McCarthy Construction" sign in front of the school. I argued that if a driver was not familar with the area and missed the school zone sign, it wasn't obvious that it was a school zone given all the construction.
All of this argument over the speeding ticket resulting in totally distracting the officer from the unsafe lane change ticket. I didn't plan that as a strategy, but he forgot all about proving the lane change ticket.
The judge finally made her rulings. She dismissed the unsafe lane change ticket because Sergeant George failed to meet the burden of proof. She also reduced the speeding ticket from speeding in a school zone to speeding only. I thanked her for her ruling and sat in the back of the room until I received the piece of paper from her assistant.
What should you take away from my experience? First of all, you can't just walk into the courtroom and expect the judge to dismiss the ticket just because you showed up. You need to look the part and have logical arguments and defenses as to why you are not guilty. The judge is unfortunately compensated by the City of Scottsdale and he/she is going to almost always side with the police officer if you don't have some solid arguments and aren't persuasive in your points. Speeding tickets are a major source of revenue for municipalities, and given the current state of the economy, they are not going to let you off easy. They need the revenue to make up for the shortfalls in their budgets.
It really bothers me to admit this, because I work in the legal field and have a healthy respect for it. I was disappointed by the outcome of the hearing because I don't think should have paid a fine at all. For those of you brave enough to fight the tickets, know that the odds, at least in Scottsdale, are stacked against you before you even walk into the courtroom. That doesn't mean you shouldn't exercise your constitutional rights, however. Just be prepared for a fight.
If you need assistance preparing for ticket hearing, drop me a line and I'll try to help.
There's more to this story! Stay tuned! Christine
My friend Ann, who is my spiritual mentor, told me that recently she’s been asked by a lot of people for more information on the movie The Secret and the Law of Attraction. She mentioned that she is going to refer people to this blog (thanks Ann!) for more information on how the Law of Attraction works. So I thought I’d better get writing about it so that the masses being referred to my site have something to read when they get here, and I give thanks in advance for all the people who find my site to read this information.
As a disclaimer, almost none of the ideas I’m about to share with you are original. I can’t take credit for this information since many, many other teachers before me have talked about these concepts long before I was alive! I just happen to be the messenger today and I can help others apply the law in their own lives.
The Law of Attraction is the most powerful law in the universe. It basically says, “Like attracts like.” Everything in this universe is made up of energy, including your thoughts, and you attract everything that shows up in your reality with your thoughts, and especially with your feelings.
The feeling part is really the most important part of the Law of Attraction. If you’re not sure about your thoughts, ask yourself how you feel. Our feelings are a guide to what we are creating. If you feel bad, you are not creating the things you want. It’s impossible to feel bad and attract good at the same time.
This information is hard for a lot of people to accept at first because no one wants to believe that they attracted a car accident, debt or any other negative situation. However, if you consider the law for a moment, it’s really liberating because it means YOU have the power to change your circumstances.
The key to applying the law to your life is to change the way you think about things and get absolutely clear on what you want. Most people send mixed requests to the universe by thinking about what they want combined with what they don’t want.
The request usually sounds something like this: “I want a new car, because my current one is falling apart.”
The problem with this statement is that you are telling the universe that you WANT your car to fall apart. The universe doesn’t understand the words “I don’t want…” because the universe assumes that if you’re talking about it, you want it. In this statement, you are asking for the car to break down because you thought about how bad the car is, felt the fear of it breaking down, and then talked about it breaking down. When the car breaks down, the universe has delivered exactly what’s been asked for.
A clearer and more refined version of this particular request would sound something like this: “Thank you God/Universe (or whatever you choose to call it) for my car. I appreciate the car because it gets me back and forth to work every day and it serves my needs, allowing me to get to the grocery store, etc.” This might not seem like much to be thankful for, but imagine your life without any car at all! Gratitude is the best way to attract more good into your life. And, being thankful for the little things is a good place to start.
Another important thing to understand is that just because your current circumstances are not desirable doesn’t mean you can’t change the future. We are continually living in the residual. In other words, your current reality is a result of your previous thoughts and feelings, and if you change them now, your future reality will change.
This will be a challenge to a lot of you because you’ll have to imagine that the future is already here! And you do that by test driving the new car, taking photos of yourself in the car, visualizing yourself owning the car and having the feelings of it already being in your reality. Have you ever noticed how kids pretend to play school, etc.? You'll just be pretending on a bigger scale.
I’m using the example of the car because it’s illustrative of a situation that my mom had trouble with. She didn’t know that she had to be thankful for the car she already has. She thought that if she was thankful for her current circumstances that she was somehow telling the universe that she didn’t need or want the new car she had been asking for. I understood her viewpoint but there is no relation to what exists now and what exists in the future. Just because it exists in your reality now doesn't mean your future can't be different if you choose to change it.
However, gratitude for what you have NOW is the fastest way to bring more good into your life, because when you are thankful you are feeling good. When you feel good, you’re attracting good things.
So, to attract what you want, get clear on what you want (don’t talk about what you don’t want!) and focus ONLY on what you want. Tell those negative voices to be quiet. Visualize yourself having whatever it is you want, know that you can have it, stay in alignment with it by feeling good, and it will manifest in your reality.
Christine