News

By Adam B. Brandon Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal (DCA), sitting en banc, recently withdrew an unpopular decision applying the statute of limitations defense to mortgage foreclosures. As previously discussed on this blog, the Third DCA’s prior opinion in Deutsche Bank Trust Co. Am. v. Beauvais took the unique position that the dismissal of a foreclosure action without... read more

By Adam B. Brandon The Truth in Lending Act (“TILA”) requires lenders to make certain disclosures to borrowers about the terms of residential mortgages. For example, TILA requires a lender to provide a payoff balance to a borrower within seven business days of a written request. See 15 U.S.C. § 1639g. An original “creditor” who fails to comply with TILA’s... read more

By Adam B. Brandon To establish standing to enforce a promissory note, a lender must prove that it is the rightful holder of the negotiable instrument. Typically, this entails producing the original note together with all allonges endorsing the note to subsequent holders. Under Florida’s Uniform Commercial Code (“UCC”), an allonge must be “affixed” to the note... read more

By Adam B. Brandon On October 30, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) adopted final crowdfunding rules to implement Title III of the bipartisan Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (“JOBS Act”). An alternative to traditional financing, “crowdfunding” involves soliciting small monetary contributions from a large number of people, typically... read more

By Adam B. Brandon In a November 2014 post, this blog discussed how the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) warned financial institutions they could be liable for facilitating illegal activities if their customers were involved in money laundering or consumer fraud. As part of an initiative known as Operation Choke Point, the FDIC issued guidance which advised banks to... read more