Free Chain of Title by David Dayen

or creating payoff statements. But one passage leaped out at Garfield: in a majority of cases, servicers lacked one or more pieces of documentation needed to establish the validity of the debt. That included the note, which was missing over 40 percent of the time.
    Bankruptcy cases and foreclosure cases are different. But in two out of every five in the study, mortgage companies simply didn’t comply with the rules to verify standing. The fact that, according to Porter’s paper, bankruptcy courts would routinely let cases advance even without critical documents didn’t bode well for those who wanted to fight the system. But thinking about all these different links in the chain and how fast financial institutions were swapping mortgages during the bubble, Lisa was convinced that the companies involved didn’t comply with the law. And she couldn’t stay quiet about that.
    Under Florida law, plaintiffs didn’t necessarily have to present the original promissory note at trial. But they did need to give an explanation and show proof of underlying ownership.This was the “Re-establishment of Lost Note” count in Lisa’s complaint: U.S. Bank was announcing its intention to submit evidence that, despite losing the note, it indeed had the right to foreclose.
    So on March 9, 2009, just a few weeks after being served with foreclosure papers, Lisa, acting in her own defense as a pro se litigant,filed a motion to dismiss for lack of standing. She cribbed from a couple of sample legal templates at Living Lies , arguing that U.S. Bank had no interest in her loan and therefore could not foreclose. The motion was meant to provoke a reaction, to get whatever the bank saw as their proof submitted into the court records. U.S. Bank filed a motion for extension. They weren’t prepared to actually make a case.
    Shortly after filing her motion, Lisa entered what she would later call her “sleepless phase”: staying up until three in the morning, taking a catnap, and waking up at six. She spent every night reading and researching and learning. She analyzed lists of securitizations, read foreclosure defense strategies, and devoured every article on Living Lies . Every morning she would run to the computer to see if she missed anything. It was like going to college for an intense, self-administered degree in high finance. It lasted over three years.
    This further strained her relationship with Alan, which had already taken more shots than most marriages could endure. Lisa was spending her nights outside the marriage bed, sitting in that big useless room glued to the home computer, while Alan tossed and turned. The couple barely spoke.
    Lisa doesn’t quite remember when she moved out of the house. One day, at a light on the outskirts of downtown West Palm Beach, instead of taking a left, she took a right, to the co-op by the Intracoastal. With so much disorder in her life, she longed for the simple pleasures of sitting on the balcony, hearing the water hit the seawall. She’d spend a day at the house and a day at the apartment, consumed by the fantasy that if she just spent more and more time at the condo, maybe Alan wouldn’t notice she left. The marriage could dissolve of its own accord, without conflict or even discussion. Lisa gradually gathered her possessions, a couple of things a day, until shehad everything out of the house. She didn’t care if Alan stayed there, provided they still owned it. She chuckled at the irony of spending most of her waking hours trying to prevent foreclosure on a house she no longer even lived in.
    At the end of April, Jenna had surgery at Miami Children’s Hospital, to release the tethered spine and relieve pressure on the vertebrae. Alan came to Miami, staying in a local Ronald McDonald House. Lisa bunked in the hospital room, never leaving Jenna’s side. The surgery went well, though afterward Jenna couldn’t move for a couple of weeks,