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26 A lan Weinreb, Founder of the Margolin & Weinreb Law Group, is a New York- based attorney specializing in mortgage foreclosure, bankruptcy, and REO. Weinreb represented the plaintiff in a very significant case last month, which saw a federal court hand down a decision on a traditionally state-level issue: foreclosure actions. According to Weinreb, the outcome could impact future foreclosures across the state—and the nation—for years to come. What was the gist of your recent case? What was each side arguing? We represented a plaintiff in a mortgage foreclosure. e borrowers, of course, had long since defaulted on their payments. It was argued by the borrowers' attorneys that since New York has a comprehensive statutory framework to protect borrowers in residential cases, and that as a result, the federal court should say, "Even though we can hear a mortgage foreclosure case if it meets the legal requirements to be brought in federal court, we are not going to hear these cases. ey should be in state court." is is called "abstention." To sum it up, the borrow- ers filed a motion to dismiss the complaint on abstention grounds. You see, when homeowners can't afford a lawyer, there are often law services set up for them at the city or county level to represent them when they get served with foreclosure complaints. A lot of these services are partially funded by the state of New York. In this par- ticular case, these borrowers were represented by Queens County Legal Services. We're find- ing that when we bring these cases—including this one—that these particular institutions that represent these defaulting borrowers have a lot of resources available to them. ey tend to be very litigious and they immediately step in and say, "Hey, wait a minute. ey're only bring- ing this case in federal court to avoid having to go through the settlement conference part." So this was a contested case. Queens County Legal Services represented the borrowers in the hopes of getting the case removed to state court and getting the homeowner a conference and potential loan modification, which would have and could have delayed the foreclosure process by years. Why did you decide to take your recent foreclosure case to federal court instead of state court? We brought this action in federal court instead of New York State Court, as is typically done, because we feel that we can get our cases for our clients through the court system faster and without the delays often found in state courts. COUNSEL'S CORNER Regulatory Compliance in Today's Technology-Inundated Mortgage Industry ". . . we feel that we can get our cases for our clients through the court system faster and without the delays often found in state Alan Weinreb, Founder of the Margolin & Weinreb Law Group