Avoiding a Lawyers' Race to the Foreclosure Bottom: Some Advice to Lawyers for Lenders and Borrowers on Their Roles in Foreclosure Litigation

Lawyers for lenders and borrowers are joining their clients in questionable actions in foreclosure litigation as a massive number of borrower defaults have led to a flood of lawsuits. This article describes some of the practices lawyers for lenders and borrowers have undertaken in this race to the bottom likely rationalized by “the ends justify the means” and “everyone else is doing it, why can’t I?” It goes on to outline the minimum standards set by the rules of legal ethics and to describe just what foreclosure lawyers should be doing. The lessons are not new, but the foreclosure crisis highlights the need to revisit them.