Foreclosure Expert Returns to Sarasota

BRADENTON – As neighborhoods and area property values continue to be ravaged by foreclosures, citizens are often tied in knots trying to understand the murky and convoluted system through which they are processed. Next Monday, Foreclosure Expert April Charney returns to the area to give an update on the state of things. Titled Foreclosure Mess 101, it will cover everything from “nothing-backed” securities and the failure of loan ownership to an outline of new Florida foreclosure laws.

All around us are homes that have lost value and neighborhoods are swimming in a sea of foreclosures. All taxpayers share the burden of the cost of local governments and foreclosures are still wreaking havoc on our local economy, adding to our shared tax burdens. Last year the Sarasota County Council of Neighborhood Associations, Inc. (CONA) presented Foreclosure Mess 101, a standing room only event featuring April Charney and Matt Weidner, two attorneys at the forefront of the foreclosure mess.

On Monday, September 9, at 7:00 p.m. CONA will present Foreclosure Mess 101, an update by April Charney covering these topics:
▪  “nothing-backed” securities and the failure of loan ownership
▪  risk of municipal bankruptcy presented by unfunded pension obligations
▪  urgent need for Florida counties and cities to ramp up efforts to convert the failure of loans
▪  update on home loan “defaults”—thirty to ninety days and “bank” walkaways
▪  avoiding the unlicensed practice of law encountered while coping with foreclosure
▪  systemic ongoing fraud on our courts occurring in residential foreclosure litigation
▪  problems and potential of properties underwater in debt-to-value ratios
▪  navigating foreclosure law requires a competent lawyer
▪  outline of new Florida foreclosure laws
▪  other new laws affecting consumers
▪  Q and A

Charney is a consumer protection attorney whose foreclosure defense work became a specialty for which she has garnered considerable acclaim. Author and activist Liz Courson called her the Mick Jagger of foreclosure law. 

Charney continues to shine a bright light and bring national attention to illegal and fraudulent actions by banks as she is featured in nationwide publications. She also leads efforts to educate attorneys and judges throughout the country about this complex law.

From 2004 until early last year, Charney worked as a senior staff attorney in the consumer law unit at Jacksonville Area Legal Aid. She is a member of the National Association of Consumer Advocates, the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, and a proud graduate of Max Gardner's bankruptcy boot camp.

A 1980 graduate of the University of Miami School of Law, Charney practiced law in Sarasota between 1991 and 2003 as a managing and staff attorney with Gulfcoast Legal Services.

CONA meetings are open to the public as well as members of the 72 associations the organization represents and its individual members. 

The group meets on second Mondays of the month (except July and August) at 7:00 p.m. at the Sarasota Garden Club, 1131 Boulevard of the Arts in Sarasota, which is at the intersection of Tamiami Trail (south of the Municipal Auditorium). Parking and the entrance are reached from Van Wezel Way. More information about CONA is available at http://www.conasarasota.org/.