As foreclosure cases continue to mount unabated, Maryland nonprofit groups, elected officials and the courts are joining forces to urge attorneys to help residents in danger of losing their homes.
Called the Foreclosure Prevention Pro Bono Project, the effort will train lawyers to take on cases, advise homeowners or assist housing counseling agencies. Training sessions begin this Thursday in Baltimore and are scheduled throughout the state over the summer.
Robert M. Bell, chief judge of Maryland's Court of Appeals, sent letters dated yesterday to every licensed attorney in Maryland - more than 33,000 in all - asking them to volunteer their time or donate money. "This is one of the most important pro bono initiatives of our time," he wrote.
Attorneys are already responding. The Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland, which is coordinating the effort to register lawyers, said faxes offering help are pouring in. Fifty people have registered for training.
"The problem's become so pronounced that we - all of us - felt that it was important to try to do whatever we could to respond," said Sharon E. Goldsmith, the center's executive director.
Bell, who was not available for comment yesterday, is issuing his call in the early months of the state's new foreclosure law, which gives delinquent borrowers more notice and time to react. Goldsmith said the chief judge reminds attorneys annually that Maryland encourages them to do 50 hours of volunteer legal work each year. But this is the first time in her 18 years with the Pro Bono Resource Center that a chief judge has asked attorneys to volunteer their time to combat a specific problem.
"He's acting in the best tradition of the judiciary," said Michael Millemann, professor of law at the University of Maryland School of Law.
"He's not taking a position on the merits of any foreclosure dispute. ... All he's saying is, 'Let's balance the process,'" Millemann said.
More than 70,000 Maryland homeowners were behind on their mortgages in the first three months of the year, including thousands who faced the imminent loss of their homes. That's an increase of 70 percent from a year earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Some residents are struggling with job loss or other personal problems. Others are in mortgages they couldn't afford from the get-go, in some cases because they were fast-talked into them, housing counselors say. Few have the money to hire a lawyer.
