As seniors crumble under debt burden, Baltimore Sun goes to Legal Aid experts

In the lead business section article on Sunday, the Baltimore Sun looked at the economic crisis many seniors face because of debt (“Seniors crumple under debt burden,” May 27).  The Sun went to two Legal Aid experts.

From the article:

Louise Carwell, a lawyer who works with low-income seniors at the Maryland Legal Aid’s consumer law unit in Baltimore, said her clients are dealing with a wide range of debt, from credit cards to medical bills.

Many seniors in Baltimore also are behind on property taxes, which puts their homes at risk of going to a tax sale.

Carwell and other public-sector attorneys who work with the elderly say indebted seniors want relief, a trend that has increased in the last several years.

“The anxiety that they get or they create within themselves from debt collectors, that’s really punishing,” Carwell said. “That’s why a lot of my folks file for bankruptcy.”

Mary Aquino, a staff attorney with Legal Aid’s Baltimore County Elder Law Program, said she recalled a 75-year-old client who was nine months behind on her mortgage, with $10,000 in credit card debt and an additional $36,000 in student-loan debt. The woman’s sole income was a monthly $1,100 Social Security check.

“She’s hoping to file for bankruptcy and keep her home,” said Aquino, noting that student loans are usually not discharged in bankruptcy.

To read the article (behind a pay wall), click here.

 

The face of foreclosure in Maryland

Today’s lead letter to the editor in the Washington Post paints a clearer picture of the foreclosure crisis than an article that appeared on the front page over the weekend.

“The March 4 front-page article ‘We don’t believe in living for free’ told of a Prince George’s County couple fighting eviction from their home of five years even though they had never paid any money on their mortgage. While fascinating, the article did not reveal the true face of foreclosure in the county, and it was a disservice to readers who want to understand the situation,” wrote Vicki King Taitano, director of Maryland Legal Aid’s Foreclosure Legal Assistance Project.

“The reality of foreclosure in Prince George’s is this: People were aggressively pursued by mortgage brokers, who in turn received bonuses from banks for selling consumers high-interest loans,” Taitano continued. “The foreclosure crisis is not the result of speculation by people such as Keith and Janet Ritter, the focus of the article.”

To read the entire letter, click here.

Legal Aid foreclosure expert in the Post

After Occupy D.C. protestors rallied in support of Bertina Jones, a grandmother who lost her Bowie home to foreclosure, the Washington Post spoke with the director of Maryland Legal Aid’s Foreclosure Legal Assistance Project.

“Occupiers chose Jones to rally behind after discussions with staffers at Maryland’s Legal Aid Bureau, where Vicki King Taitano, who directs the bureau’s foreclosure legal assistance project, has championed Jones’s case for months,” today’s article said. “’This is a perfect example of a woman who was making her payments, and they still foreclosed on her,’ Taitano said.”

To read the article, click here.

The mortgage settlement and Maryland

Last week, Midday with Dan Rodricks on WYPR-FM looked at the $25 billion mortgage settlement reached with major banks and 49 attorneys general. Panelist Vicki King Taitano, director of Maryland Legal Aid’s Foreclosure Legal Assistance Project, called the settlement “positive.”

“I think refusal [by banks] to do principal reduction has been a big problem,” Taitano said. “This is a lot of money. If loans can be reduced to fair-market price . . . I’m hopeful this will make a big difference for a lot of people.”

To hear the broadcast, click here.

Bankruptcy: What You Need to Know in Maryland

Legal Aid has released a new brochure, “Bankruptcy: What You Need to Know in Maryland.” The brochure answers questions such as “What can bankruptcy do for me?” “Will bankruptcy wipe out all of my debts?” “How does bankruptcy affect co-signers?” “Are there any reasons I should not file bankruptcy?” and “Are there different types of bankruptcy cases?”

To download the brochure, click here: Bankruptcybrochure1211.

More seek Legal Aid in hard times

From yesterday’s Washington Post: As Maryland Legal Aid celebrates its centennial this year, the national housing crisis, which has hit suburban Washington hard, is making the work it does even more vital.

At the same time, the agency, like similar organizations across the country, is grappling with funding cuts that make it harder to help the increasing number of people in need of assistance in civil cases.

For example, Prince George’s, the second-most-populous jurisdiction in the state, has endured more foreclosures than any other in Maryland. And the economic downturn has brought Legal Aid prospective clients that the organization would not have seen 10 years ago.

“I review a lot of the intakes, and we’re getting people from Potomac calling us,” [said Legal Aid supervising attorney Teresa Cooke]. “But these individuals are now actually financially eligible for our services.”

To read the article, click here.

Free consumer legal rights workshop on Eastern Shore

Maryland Legal Aid and Mid-Shore Pro Bono, Inc. will host a free pro bono workshop on consumer issues Monday, Oct. 24, from 5 p.m. to 7  p.m. at Talbot County Senior Center, 400 Brookletts Avenue, Easton, MD 21601.

The workshop will  include information on consumer issues including: bankruptcy basics, debt collection rights and how to stop harassing debt collection calls, loan co-signers responsibilities, pay day loans, and identity theft. Volunteer pro bono attorneys and consumer advocates will speak for approximately 45 minutes on these topics and answer questions.

This workshop is being jointly provided by Legal Aid in celebration of its 100th anniversary and by Mid-Shore Pro Bono, Inc. in celebration of National Pro Bono Week. The event is free and open to the public. Registration is not required. For more information, call Mid-Shore Pro Bono at 410-690-8128.

Robo-signing article quotes Legal Aid expert

Lindsay Warnes, a staff attorney in Maryland Legal Aid’s Midwestern Maryland office (Frederick) was quoted in a Baltimore Sun article about robo-signing (“Consumer advocates want affidavits pulled in Md. debt-collection cases,” Oct. 3). The issue is tied to old consumer debts bought by companies who then sue to collect after filing affidavits swearing they have personal knowledge of the debts–and usually don’t.

“They’re trying to get more creative in the way they write them,” Warnes told The Sun. “But there’s still no personal knowledge whatsoever.” To read the article, click here.

Baltimore Sun: A Busy 100th for Legal Aid

The lead story in the business section of today’s Baltimore Sun focuses on Maryland Legal Aid on its centenary.

“As Marylanders lose jobs, homes and savings, they are turning in record numbers to the state’s largest provider of legal services to the poor,” wrote reporter Andrea Seigel. “The Maryland Legal Aid Bureau, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this month, enters its second century with a growing caseload involving the newly needy.”

“They are coming out of the woodwork,” said Wilhelm H. Joseph Jr., the agency’s executive director. “You have people who are formerly middle class and for the first time in their lives, they have lost their jobs.”

To read the article, click here.

5 signs of a foreclosure rescue scam

Maryland Legal Aid’s Vicki King Taitano, director of the Foreclosure Legal Assistance Project, was interviewed by Black Enterprise for an article about foreclosure rescue scams.

“I think people need lawyers. And I hope attorneys will volunteer or take more cases and represent people in mediations and foreclosures because when people are represented I think they do much better,” Taitano said.

To read the entire article, click here.