'Angel' of foreclosure defense bedevils lenders

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Talking about what she sees as one of America’s darkest hours, attorney April Charney uses some pretty colorful language.

Mike Stuckey Senior news editor • Profile • E-mail

“You ever look into a place where snakes hang out?” she asks in the middle of a conversation about the loan officers, appraisers, investment bankers, attorneys and others that she believes are responsible for the nation’s worsening financial crisis. “That’s what I see here. They’re writhing and oozing and morphing into creepy stuff with slime all over it.”

Then in her quiet, gentle drawl — the kind of voice that could get you invited to afternoon drinks on the finest porches in South Florida, where she grew up — she leans forward and says quite earnestly, “Not to discredit snakes or anything.”

Charney, a lawyer with the Jacksonville Area Legal Aid agency, is quickly developing a national reputation as a champion of homeowners facing foreclosure and a serious adversary for those attempting to take possession of those homes. Her encyclopedic knowledge of contract law, debt-collection practice, securitized mortgages, the trusts that hold them and the agreements that govern the trusts have put her at the forefront of the rapidly expanding specialty of foreclosure defense.

While carrying her own load of 70 to 100 foreclosure cases as a legal aid attorney, Charney, 51, also has become one of the nation’s top trainers of other lawyers eager to learn how to serve the growing clientele spawned by America’s mortgage meltdown.

About 1,500 lawyers have attended her daylong classes on foreclosure law so far, 80 to 200 at a time. She has taught in Ohio, California, Minnesota, South Carolina, Missouri and throughout Florida. She offers the classes at cost with the help of local bar associations and aid groups and requires that all students perform 20 hours of pro bono legal work in their communities.

A trail of trouble
Charney said her crusade was born out of experience. Over and over again, she said, in her cases and those of other attorneys she met, she found sloppiness, fraud and outright criminality in the nation’s mortgage lending industry. Regardless of why her clients have been unable to pay their mortgages, she maintains that nobody deserves to lose a home to the unethical and illegal foreclosure procedures that she claims are now being used by many banks and loan servicers.

Her work has earned her the enmity of many a lender and high praise from consumer advocates. “She is definitely a woman who walks the talk and carries a big stick that will crush those who defy consumer laws,” wrote Moe Bedard, president of Loan Safe Solutions, a company that tries to help homeowners prevent foreclosure.

The Mortgage Bankers Association, the trade group that represents 2,400 companies from all sectors of real estate finance, did not respond to msnbc.com’s invitation to comment about Charney and her sweeping indictment of the industry and its business practices. And the American Bankers Association, unfamiliar with her work, had no comment.

But clients like Vickie Lewis of Jacksonville, for whom Charney has staved off foreclosure for more than four years, adore her. “She’s an angel,” said Lewis. “Without Miss Charney, I would have been out a long time ago.”

Long days, even on 'vacation'
Charney pursues her calling with energy and enthusiasm. On a recent “vacation day,” she met for hours with a reporter, then saw clients until 8:30 p.m. in her downtown Jacksonville office, which is so crammed with case files, law books and other materials she hasn’t been able to shut the door or hold a meeting there for quite some time.

She has no sacred cows, and is currently taking on the Jacksonville area Habitat for Humanity, a darling of many liberal social activists, over construction quality and other issues.

Charney, separated from her husband, is often at her desk preparing briefs after midnight but manages to maintain close contact with a daughter, 25, a third-year law student, and a son, 23, who received a degree in anthropology last year and is now interning with the U.S. Park Service. She prefers sweaters and jeans to suits, and dreams about being able to spend more time running rivers and hiking wilderness trails.

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