REMSEN STREET — The Volunteer Lawyers Project hosted a two-day workshop last week on foreclosure prevention law.

The event, organized by the Center for NYC Neighborhoods and led by Legal Services for New York, was held at the Brooklyn Bar Association headquarters and educated attorneys about foreclosure issues ranging from litigation practice and sub-prime mortgages to predatory lenders and common scams.

A quick dip into mortgage and real estate law reveals the complexities, quirks and loopholes, which some say are partially responsible for the skyrocketing rates of foreclosure across Brooklyn.

For example, fraudulent or hybrid Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs) that come with teaser rates, piggyback mortgages and balloon notes could be difficult to understand for the unknowledgeable attorney.

Attorneys experienced with foreclosure cases from South Brooklyn Legal Services, a Legal Services for New York office located on Court Street in Downtown Brooklyn, were among the speakers who spoke during the workshop about ARMs and other foreclosure issues.

Meghan Faux and Jessica Attie, co-directors of SBLS’ Foreclosure Prevention Project, and staff attorney Navid Vazire all spoke about cases involving low-income clients who fell victim to fraud and/or predatory lending.

One subject they brought up was loan modifications, which increasingly are being used to defraud homeowners. Although legitimate organizations exist, there are some groups with names like Loan Modifications Group or American Modification Agency that defraud homeowners out of thousands of dollars.

Among the other attorneys who spoke were Oda Friedheim, a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society’s predatory lending project in Queens, and Pamela Sah, a Legal Services for New York attorney experienced in foreclosure issues who has been involved in coordinating several foreclosure training workshops.

The other speakers were Josh Zimmer, the co-director of the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, Jean Constantine-Davis, a senior attorney with the American Association of Retired Persons, Jay Fleischman, a private attorney, and Herman DeJesus, an SBLS paralegal.

Kings County courts will soon face a huge number of foreclosure cases under a new law signed by Gov. David Paterson in August that makes court settlement conferences and homeowner representation mandatory in foreclosure cases.

In other words, every foreclosure action will now be accompanied by legal proceedings between homeowners and those who own mortgages. Workshops like this one give Brooklyn attorneys a chance to brush up on the law before they have to start handling these cases.

As the country struggles in a recession, home-loan problems and foreclosures have skyrocketed across New York. Foreclosures citywide have increased 50 percent from where they were one year ago, according to Crain’s magazine, and it seems all but certain that those numbers will continue to rise in 2009.

A record one in 10 American homeowners with a mortgage were either at least a month behind on their payments or in foreclosure at the end of September, as the source of housing market pressure shifted to the crumbling U.S. economy.

Job losses are also having an impact in rising delinquency rates for traditional 30-year fixed-rate loans made to borrowers with strong credit. Total delinquencies on those loans rose to 3.35 percent in September from 3.07 percent at the end of June, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

There were some modest signs of stabilization. The number of loans that entered the foreclosure process totaled 1.07 percent of all loans in the third quarter, flat from the second quarter. However, that number likely reflects changes in state laws that delay or extend the foreclosure process and efforts to work out or modify loans that could still fall back into foreclosure.

The Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.

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