Bank 'Foreclosure Experts' Couldn't Define 'Mortgage'

Work experience as a hair stylist or at Wal-Mart was good enough to get you hired as a "foreclosure expert" at financial institutions rushing through thousands of foreclosures, a Florida court heard yesterday. A lawyer defending thousands of homeowners produced depositions from mortgage company workers who testified that they had been put to work signing foreclosure paperwork without being given formal training. Some of them said they barely knew what a mortgage was.

"I don't know the ins and outs of the loan, I just sign documents," testified one "foreclosure supervisor" who couldn't define basic terms. Some workers said they knew they were lying when they signed foreclosure affidavits, reports the AP, which notes that the testimony is going to make it harder for banks to portray "robo-signing" as an isolated problem. The lawyer says he will make the testimony available to a multi-state probe of the mortgage-servicing industry. (And it's wild that underwater homeowners are even paying their mortgages, writes Brett Arends; click here for his interesting take on things.)