MOUNT VERNON — The Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court recently released a statement asking Ohio attorneys to begin offering their services pro bono (without charge) to assist the courts with the growing number of foreclosure cases.
Chief Justice Thomas Moyer, in conjunction with the Attorney General’s Office, state treasurer, the Ohio State Bar Association and several other groups have established working groups in an effort to draw up a plan to recruit, train and deploy Ohio lawyers to help mediate the crisis between lender and consumer.
Chris Davey, spokesman for the Supreme Court, told the News that any plan the working groups develop is “probably going to be tailored to individual counties.”
“We’re working with local metropolitan bar organizations to encourage and facilitate the use of mediation specifically in foreclosure cases,” he said, adding that the working groups are scheduled to come together in mid-January to report on their findings and recommendations.
Ken Brown, spokesman for the Ohio State Bar Association, cautioned those involved not to raise expectations among the public.
“I don’t think our group is going to be able to solve everybody’s problem,” Brown said. “But we are going to try to help those who otherwise don’t have resources available to them. We’ve got a big issue here [foreclosure] and it’s probably going to get bigger in 2008.”
Brown said his organization has received over 200 calls from Ohio attorneys interested in offering their services for free to the public. However, some lawyers around the state are skeptical of Moyer’s program.
Mount Vernon attorney Korey Kidwell of Murray and Rauzi Ltd., whose firm deals with foreclosures, said, “Until we get more details on [Moyer’s program] we’ll have to wait and see. It may be too little too late. We’ll have to wait and see.”
Jim Norris of Critchfield, Critchfield & Johnston represents numerous lenders in foreclosure cases. Norris said debtors often get in trouble with more than one lender at a time and mediation, although attempted, is not always a solution.
“Most lending institutions communicate with debtors first,” said Norris. “If there was any way of working things out they would have explored that opportunity.”
Norris said there’s not a lot of mediation locally because it’s not a rule of the court.
“It’s not something we’ve seen up until this point,” he said.
Norris described the idea of mandatory mediation as a “public policy rule that lending institutions now lose even more money.”
“The lender didn’t have the understanding [that he would have to deal with mediation] when the defendant agreed to pay that money,” said Norris.
Carol Marx, a Lancaster attorney and president of the District 9 Bar Association, which includes Knox County, said foreclosure isn’t the only issue where the public could use the help of free legal advice.
“It’s important when people can’t afford a lawyer,” said Marx. “Obviously, it’s become more of a topic of conversation, and the Supreme Court has just released a booklet regarding the desire for pro bono work to be part of a lawyer’s practice.”
According to Marx, unlike some states, Ohio does not mandate that attorneys offer their services for free to the public. Marx said Lancaster attorneys offer a free monthly clinic to local residents to help with their legal issues, whether it be foreclosure or other problems.
“The biggest problem we experience is that virtually 90 percent of the people [who attend the clinic] have domestic issues like divorce or child support,” she said. “When people can’t afford to get divorced, that’s pretty bad. Even the court costs [today are almost prohibitive]. Here in Lancaster, the judge is almost considering special sessions of court just to deal with the people who are forced to represent themselves.”
Lancaster is similar in population to Mount Vernon, according to Marx.
Knox County Bar President John Aebi agrees with the need for free legal services for the public.
“We hold a free clinic every second or third month, whenever we get enough attorneys signed up,” he said. “It’s been good for the public and for the bar [organization]. Everybody has found it to be real rewarding.”
Aebi said he and several other attorneys have offered to do followup work, free of charge, for some clients. Aebi agreed with Marx that although most clients attending the free legal clinic have domestic issues, the foreclosure problem presents its own set of issues.
“[These cases are] complicated,” said Aebi. “It’s kind of unrealistic to find any expertise in a small town and try to resolve these foreclosure issues. Mortgage companies are difficult to deal with.”
There is no date set for the next free legal clinic in Mount Vernon, according to Aebi.