Today we live in a world where big government and big corporations trample on the little guy, while the government institutions that have historically protected us are no longer doing their jobs. A case in point is the recent housing collapse.
Despite massive fraud in the packaging and selling of mortgages on Wall Street, and despite massive fraud in the handling of the resulting foreclosures by the big banks, not a single criminal charge was brought by the state and federal agencies that are purportedly there to protect the public.
Instead, the companies that perpetrated these crimes received massive bailouts by Congress, resulting in huge bonuses for the executives who were actually responsible for this mess to begin with.
Meanwhile, millions of homeowners lost their homes to foreclosure, while millions more saw the value of their real estate fall by 20%, 30% or more. Even today, the damage to the economy has yet to be fully repaired.
My name is Jay Fenello, and I was one of these homeowners.
Initially, I tried to work within the system, applying for relief as instructed by the Obama administration. Despite numerous attempts, I soon realized that the government programs were really designed to help the banks, and that no relief would be forthcoming. As a result, I decided to take our case to court.
As President Trump recently learned, even the most powerful man in the free world can have his actions stopped cold by a federal judge in a U.S. District court. That’s over 90 courts and 900 federal judges who can stop a more powerful party from trampling the rights of the common person.
And there are over 10 times as many state judges who can do the same.
The problem has been, court cases are extremely time consuming, and as a result, can be extremely expensive. Even when funds are available, when you’re up against parties with unlimited funds, they can bleed you dry with appeals, frivolous motions, and other time wasters.
To level the playing field, instead of paying attorneys to do all of the work, I’d use the power of the Internet to coordinate a people-powered court action filed as a pro se litigant:
| Pro Se: | advocating on one’s own behalf before a court, rather than being represented by a lawyer. |
“The right of a party to a legal action to represent his or her own cause has long been
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These “pro se” civil actions are inexpensive for individuals, but remain very expensive to the large entities that must hire a team of lawyers to defend their interests. This mismatch in cost structure is a great equalizer between the money and power of large entities, and the common people.
The Result
Over the six+ years we were in court, I made a lot of rookie mistakes, and lost just about every case, motion and appeal that I filed. Even so, the outcome was extremely favorable. Today, we still live in our home, and have successfully shed hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses, debt, and negative equity.
So others could learn from my experience, I have documented my journey on this site. Now that our case is over, I have since included sections on what I have learned, and suggestions on how others can pursue their own pro se actions.
