Jumping GOATS and Communications Monsters!

[captainsblog]

Not to get too Gorey about things, but....

I mentioned earlier this week that I was going to check if the image of our beloved quarterback atop a street sign in North Buffalo was real or not. It's been all over social media, the name changed from Hertel to Hurdle Avenue on account of this play from the previous Sunday's game, but it might have just been photoshopped.

On my way back from real court on Tuesday, I headed home via the 190, Amherst Street and Hertel. The corner of Wellington looked not to have the sight of Josh, but that was on the north side. Wellington jogs a few feet east past that, and there, on the southwest corner, was the real (well, vinyl) thing. I pulled over and took a team picture:



(I cropped my own head in that because I take shit selfies, but don't worry; I don't have to go into Crop Protocol.)

Since that, I've seen pictures of Josh bustin' out all over. A Rochester mural artist put this one on a wall outside the Public Market to take selfies in front of (that's not me):



Nor is this; in fact, this is an image from Sunday night's home game against Green Bay which hasn't even happened yet, painted on the wall of a long-abandoned downtown Main Street Burger King:



(GOAT= Greatest Of All Time.)

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This is my only office day this week with no appearances or appointments, so I've been trying to catch up. The clients who are not returning calls, answering emails or paying bills? Are not helping. Hence, posts about murals and mockups.

I did spend time preparing a topic for a bankruptcy bar association meeting which I will now share here. It's about a scourge on my practice that is not the fault of mine, my clients or the courts in which I appear for them.

I’ve got a subject for some discussion.

There are two heads to this monster, but they are equally disturbing. Both come into existence when a consumer debtor attorney files either an appearance in a state court civil case or a bankruptcy involving (usually but not exclusively) a mortgage claim.  In most cases of mine, the relationship with that creditor’s law firm is fairly short. The consumer credit card case in state court usually settles, dismisses or goes to judgment within weeks. The bankruptcy results either in a discharge and reaffirmation of the mortgage debt or, in a 13, in the payment of any arrears to the lender.

But then the monsters arrive.

In the bankruptcy cases, the lender enters into a long-term communications marriage with the debtor’s attorney. All notices concerning the account come to us and not the client. Some have opt-in procedures to allow the bank and debtor to have direct contact, including the ability for them to receive statements and resume autopay or webpay arrangements. But even those who do offer that option continue to send me their notices for weeks, months and even years after my involvement in the case is effectively concluded.  This imposes, at least for me, an ethical obligation to forward the notices to the client, even where they are nothingburgers, such as the fourteenth consecutive “you have foreclosure options” blast on a loan that was made current in a 13 or maybe even always was current.  I have had banks send $5.00 checks to me, payable to clients, to settle alleged escrow miscalculations, which they then send further notices about if the client doesn’t cash the check.  I get their escrow analyses, their requests to provide updated insurance policies, and their demands for proof of payment of non-escrowed property taxes.  Many send these on outsized two-sided sheets of paper that take even more time to scan than a one-side letter-size document would. I have tried, in some cases, to encourage these lenders to stop this practice, but because some judge in some district ordered one of them on one occasion to pay stay violation fees to somebody, they ignore me. We cannot get out of this endless cycle.

What comes from the other head of the monster may be even worse. Take a look at one of them:



I whited out the recipient name and part of my office address. It was addressed to a client I handed a state court consumer credit card defense for,  sometime well over a year ago.  Either the creditor (not this bank) or its downstate collection-mill law firm put my client’s name and my address on a mailing list and then sold it. This one client, and others, routinely get offers of bank accounts, insurance, and even pre-approved credit card solicitations sent to me.  The potential for identity theft in this is rampant. These, I destroy without passing on, but do you think every recipient does?

Where to begin to fashion a remedy to this problem? I don’t think it violates bankruptcy law to offer something to somebody; car lenders do it all the time but usually contact the debtors directly.  Is there a consumer protection statute in violation that has a potential private or class remedy? Or does Senator Professor Warren have to get on the case?

Come back at the end of next week to see if we've discussed that.

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I also have some thoughts about trivial pursuits, Canadian and otherwise, as well as about an old Cornell story I was reminded of. But I think I'll save those, or maybe just mail them to Citizens Bank and let THEM deal with them and waste their own time and expense:P