Times Finds a Judge Holding Banks Accountable for Sloppy Foreclosures

In June Elizabeth Dwoskin wrote in the Voice about former city councilmember Noach Dear's transformation from an obnoxious pol to a debt court judge who specializes in swatting back attempts by loansharks to dun citizens who are often wrongly accused of default. Today the Times has found its own fightin' judge story: Arthur M. Schack, a State Supreme Court justice in Brooklyn who "fashions himself a judicial Don Quixote" in foreclosure cases where plaintiffs sometimes appear with insufficient standing or proper filings, which wins them less deference from the judge than they feel is owed them. " I don't want to put a family on the street unless it's legitimate," says Schack. A consumer credit law expert says Shack's rulings "are hardly revolutionary; it's unusual only because we so rarely hold large corporations to the rules." While you're on the subject, you might want to read Graham Rayman's November story about Lehman Brothers' sleazy foreclosure specialist firm, Aurora.