Bostwick Putting SB 94 and California State Bar on Trial

In October 2009, California's SB 94 effectively prevented lawyers from offering to represent homeowners who are seeking to avoid foreclosure through modification of their loans. Under the guise of "charging up front makes you a scammer," SB 94 has made it illegal for a lawyer to charge a homeowner an upfront retainer for legal fees...

The new law has failed to stop scammers, as was its supposed purpose, and in fact has made it much easier for California's homeowners to get ripped of by unscrupulous operators because when you remove the legitimate attorneys from the soup, all that remain are the scammers, and they get better and better at looking legit.

I'm not the only one who sees the law as having been ineffective. Last December, Suzan Anderson, who heads up the bar's task force on loan modifications, told David Streitfeld of The New York Times... "I wish the law had worked," Ms. Anderson said.