Banks negotiating to resolve claims over faulty foreclosures

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. - As Jamaican immigrants, Clovis Nelson, his wife and their six children wanted to put their roots and their home in South Florida.

Nelson said he was ignorant to the details, finding that just months after he signed the paperwork, the mortgage was impossible.

"I just did not see this as the American dream that I was craving," he said. "I made several efforts to (negotiate) with them, they just wouldn't listen...It turned out to be a nightmare," he said.

Nelson is one of 3,300 clients working with the Ticktin law firm on foreclosure issues. There are 500 of these clients in West Palm Beach alone.

"Not greed but stinking greed. There were people that made billions of dollars out of this thing," said lawyer Peter Ticktin.

Multiple media outlets are reporting that current closed-door negotiations could force banks to set up funds for states to resolve complaints. The settlements could set standards for foreclosure and loan processes going forward.

Ticking helped to discover the so-called "robo-signers," and he says the size of the foreclosure problem is impossible to measure.

"How can the banks get this thing fixed? It's not as though the banks can sit down with any particular person or a government entity or anybody and say, O-K, let's drum up a way of fixing this," Ticktin said.

Ticktin says reworking the system for families may be the best solution.

"And say let's put people in something where you're still safe in your home, that would be the way to go about it, that would be responsible banking," he said.

Nelson's case is not in litigation currently. As his lawyer explains, no paperwork from the bank meant no case against him. He is not paying his mortgage and he is hoping for the best.

"I'm just grateful for the way things are right now, where we are at with this foreclosure, and you know, the possibilities that loom on the horizon," he said.

Negotiators have tentatively set a date of July 13, 2011 for the settlement, which could exceed $20 billion.