43
State bar head urges lawyers: prevent foreclosures
YOUNGSTOWN — More lawyers should volunteer their time in foreclosure cases to help people stay in their homes, the president of the Ohio State Bar Association said here Wednesday.
“We’re out of lawyers and we really need you to help us deal with all of these foreclosures,” Atty. Barbara J. Howard of Cincinnati told about 55 people at the OSBA District 13 annual luncheon. The district has 502 members who practice in Mahoning and Columbiana counties.
In the association’s effort to prevent foreclosures, some 1,300 lawyers have volunteered for the association’s Save the Dream program statewide, and they “have all been put to work,’’ she told the gathering at the Youngstown Club.
Some 85,773 foreclosure cases were filed in Ohio last year, and those numbers have increased for 13 consecutive years, she said.
Of the 1,300 lawyers, some 950 volunteered to represent clients, and the others volunteered to assist in mediation roles.
The program’s lawyers have been able to prevent foreclosure in 12 percent of the cases they’ve handled, she said.
Howard lamented that few such cases are mediated in the courts and urged the audience to advocate for mediation. “We think it will help us bring a lot more cases to a better conclusion more quickly and save more homes for our fellow citizens,” she said.
Locally, 17 Trumbull County lawyers, three Columbiana County lawyers and 18 Mahoning County lawyers are participating in the Save the Dream program, and 100 other lawyers in the tri- county area have volunteered through OSBA to do other uncompensated work, said Atty. Kenneth Brown, OSBA public relations director.
The association recruited and trained the Save the Dream lawyers and gave their names to local agencies that provide legal services to poor people, with those agencies matching people facing foreclosure with those lawyers.
The association honored Attys. David C. Comstock of Poland and Lawrence W. Stacey of Columbiana for their 50 years as lawyers. Comstock is a past president of the Mahoning County Bar Association, and Stacey is a past president of the Columbiana County Bar Association.
Atty. Stephen T. Bolton of Youngstown and Atty. Joseph L. Ludovici of East Liverpool were re-elected to two-year terms on the OSBA Council of Delegates beginning July 1, 2010.