News-Journal/SEAN McNEIL
Raven E. Sword, a lawyer at
the Rice & Rose law firm
in Daytona Beach, splits her time between
homeowners
preventing foreclosure and
private mortgage holders looking to evict.
DAYTONA BEACH NEWS JOURNAL
- June 8, 2008 - Attorney Raven E. Sword spends some
workdays counseling hard-pressed homeowners on ways to delay
or prevent a foreclosure.
Other days, she's helping a private mortgage holder evict a family.
Sword, who joined the Rice & Rose law firm a year ago, says
her caseload is split about evenly between the two warring
sides of the foreclosure battle. But it's her homeowner
clients who more often stir her emotions despite her efforts
to maintain professional detachment.
"These are people who went to work every day and worked
hard, and now they're losing their homes," she said.
"It's a pretty dark hole they're in. You can't help but feel
for them."
Sword estimated she counsels three or four homeowners for
free every Friday in Daytona through her volunteer work
for Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida. A smaller
number, about three or four a month, pay her firm an initial
consultation fee of $150 to get an hour's worth of guidance
about foreclosure and bankruptcy. Combined, they form about
10 percent of her caseload, while another 10 percent are
lenders, who typically are charged $2,500 to $5,000,
depending on the complexity of their pretrial cases.
Sword doesn't regard foreclosure as a lucrative area of
practice. She, along with Scott Chicon of Cobb & Cole, said
most banks bypass local law firms and send their routine
work to "foreclosure mills," law firms in Miami and Tampa
that charge only about $1,500 a case. Sword said most of her
income comes from other types of cases, such as breach of
contract disputes.
-- Thomas S. Brown
Foreclosure Cases
- During April, 917
Volusia-Flagler homes were at risk for foreclosure,
compared with 496 a year earlier.
- Community Legal
Services of Mid-Florida, a nonprofit representing
low- and moderate-income homeowners, has handled 337
foreclosure cases since Jan. 1. For all of 2008, it
projects it will handle 800 to 1,000 cases as
foreclosure rates continue rising
SOURCES:
RealtyTrac.com;
Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida
