You are quite right. Attorneys do not work for nothing in foreclosure matters. Why should we?There is no reason why abstractors should be required to do so either.

I recall representing a Defendant in a commercial foreclosure a while back. The Plaintiff's law firm was one of the well known firms. They charged $40, 000.00 to represent the Plaintiff from initiation of the case to the motion for judgment. They were permitted to seek recovery of the attorney's fees from the Defendant as part of their damages. The court grudgingly granted the $40,000.00 , but not without commenting that it bordered on excessive. The Plaintiff can also recover the $300.00 filing fee, the Marshal's fee for service of process, recording fee for the lis pendens and committee's fees in the event of a foreclosure by sale.

There are not many defenses to a foreclosure action. There was no way that the Defendant was not going to lose the case, but there was a chance that we could seek either a foreclosure by sale rather than a strict foreclosure or a long law date for redemption in a strict foreclosue in which title is tansferred to the lender. Of the two alternatives the long law date was the preferrable alternative. The idea is to recovery as much equity as possible for the Defendant after the lender is paid, including the expenses of the foreclosure action.

In a foreclosure by sale all the vultures show up and bid as low as possible...not an attractive alternative for the recapture of equity. In a strict foreclosure with an extended law date for redemption the title remains with the Defendant until the redemption date, the Defendant has the continued use of the property in the interim and the Defendant has the option of selling the property on his own...possibly at a higher price than could be obtained in a foreclosure by sale. Although notice of the foreclosure would show up in the land records, and the Defendant would probably be deemed to be a motivated seller by prospective buyers.

In the case mentioned above I was successful in showing the equity in the property was more than shown in the Plaintiff's appraisal. It was developed property. So the appraiser was required to use the sales comparison approach to evaluate the property. The Plaintiff was required to put the appraiser on the witness stand to authenticate and introduce the appraisal to evidence. On cross examination I was able to show that the comparable properties used by the appraiser to reach his valuation were poor choices. The Court ruled that the property was worth more than the appraisal. Thus my client had the choice of a foreclosure by sale or the long law date. He chose the long law date...one year.

During the course of a foreclosure the Plaintiff's attorney normally does three title searches...the first, to initiate the case to determine all lien/mortgage holders who need to be included in the complaint filed with the court...the second, just before filing the motion for judgement to determine if there are any intervening lien holders particulatly mechanic's liens which may not have shown up in the intitial search....the third, before recording the judgment of foreclosure (strict foreclosure) or committee deed (foreclosure by sale)