Attorneys Learn Loan Law to Help Homeowners

By Drew Nelles, Newser Staff

Posted May 17, 2009 3:58 PM CDT

(Newser) – Lawyers nationwide are learning about foreclosure law to help new clients keep their homes, NPR reports. Housing attorneys are even teaching seminars to lawyers, who accept cases pro bono, knowing homeowners can't turn to swamped legal aid offices. Some find it "incredibly rewarding to help someone save their house as opposed to help protect a company's intellectual property,” one lawyer said.

Case in point, personal injury lawyer Liz Quick. She decided to help bakery cleaner Haji Mirkab keep his two houses. But navigating housing law meant learning a dense web of rules. "I almost feel more like a lender and a banker than I do a lawyer at times, because we're really just trying to put a deal together," said Quick. BofA finally approved Mirkab's loan modification, so he's avoided foreclosure for now.

[Images (4)]

[Quotes (2)]

Witnesses are sworn in before the Senate Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts, Tuesday, May 6, 2008 in Washington for a hearing on bankruptcy and the foreclosure crisis. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Attorney Chris Hoyer runs the Consumer Warning Network website, which offers free court documents to homeowners faced with foreclosure in an attempt to reach fair settlements with creditors. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Signs are seen during an anti-foreclosure rally in Oakland, Calif., Thursday, May 7, 2009. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

A foreclosure sign sits outside a home for sale in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, file)

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It's hard to tell people to leap into this area of law because it's difficult and complex. And yet we're trying to get lawyers to have a basic understanding, because we desperately, desperately need help. - Melissa Huelsman, housing lawyer

They're doing a type of work they've never done before, but more than that they're dealing with a kind of client they've never dealt with before.
- Lynn Armentrout, lawyer and seminar leader

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