Georgia bill to curb false liens

[Lambkin]

http://georgia.realestaterama.com/2012/ ... uote]State Representative B.J. Pak (R-Lilburn) today announced the introduction of House Bill 997, which protects law enforcement personnel and other public servants from the growing problem of having false liens filed against their personal property by individuals calling themselves “sovereign citizens.”

“False liens can threaten an individual’s ability to obtain credit or sell property,” said Rep. Pak. “Our law enforcement officers work long hours to keep us safe. We must make all efforts to deter the criminal elements from filing these fraudulent liens that are designed to harass and intimidate our men and women in uniform.”[/quote]

[add2cart]

What about private citizens?

[Judge Roy Bean]

What about private citizens?

At the risk of being overly cynical, the average "private citizen" has little or no protection from such things beyond their financially-constrained ability to obtain effective representation. The perpetrators of bogus collection/foreclosure actions against them are corporate entities who seem to be immune to prosecution.

As it is today, for the predators, the cost of abusing a consumer still falls into that "cost of doing business" category.

[Gregg]

Your Honor,

I agree with you that the banks and the people who run them are a protected class and it's hard to argue that the rules if they aren't intentionally favorable to them, at the very least they play in the majors against opponents from little league.

The only reason I find it hard to be too harsh on them is the undeniable fact that quite a few of the people are just wrong on the facts, wrong on the law and just wrong. I feel for them, I really do, but the fact is (for most at least) if they had paid the mortgage every month they wouldn't be fighting off the monsters from the BofA, Wachovia, Chase and friends Evil Mortgage Abusers. Nobody twisted anyone's arm to by the house they couldn't afford and then use a HELOC to get a boat and an SUV too.

So granted, the banks are capable of being downright despicable, and there are plenty of anecdotes to contradict my broad generalizations, but the victims are more than some of the time getting what they deserve.

[add2cart]

At the risk of being overly cynical, the average "private citizen" has little or no protection from such things beyond their financially-constrained ability to obtain effective representation. The perpetrators of bogus collection/foreclosure actions against them are corporate entities who seem to be immune to prosecution.

As it is today, for the predators, the cost of abusing a consumer still falls into that "cost of doing business" category.

I'll bet Olga Aponte would beg to differ:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/r ... rs/1195719

It happened this summer, when her son saw the name of a stranger on her property records, on a deed filed one month after she bought her house: Jacob Franz Dyck.

She wasn't "doing business", she was just living life...

[Lambkin]

This bill was the subject of Thom Hartmann's show.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101714213

[Lambkin]

B.J. Pak's bill is the subject of a Fox News article today.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03 ... -citizens/

Tim Shaw, a police chief in Temple, Ga., remembers well his run-in with a "sovereign citizen."

The individual, part of a movement that claims the laws of the land do not apply to them, started harassing him about a year ago, following a traffic stop by one of his officers.

The individual began sending a string of bizarre legal documents demanding more than $800,000. Shaw then received a set of driving directions -- from his harasser's house to his house, and to his parent's house in Florida.

State Rep. B.J. Pak is pushing a bill aimed directly at a favorite tactic of sovereign citizens -- filing false liens, similar to what happened to Shaw.

Pak's bill, which has passed out of committee, would call for up to 10 years imprisonment for filing such a false lien.