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Services for Real Estate Pros |
RAINER 26,797 |
| Louis Esbin | ||
| location_on Santa Clarita, CA — Law Offices of Louis J. Esbin | ||
| insert_link http://www.esbinlaw.com | ||
| web Louis Esbin's (esbinlaw) Blog | ||
Louis J. Esbin is a Financial Lawyer with over twenty-four years of experience in Bankruptcy, Commercial Law, Secured and Unsecured Transactions, Buy-Outs, and Litigation, representing individuals, small businesses, corporate start-ups, as well as clients from Wall Street Broker Dealers, Las Vegas Casinos, Banks, and Nonbank Lenders. He is the only Certified Bankruptcy Specialist by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization practicing in the Santa Clarita Valley. He was a founding member and during 2008, he was president of the Central District Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys Association (with 160 members the second largest consumer bankruptcy attorney association in the United States).
Louis Esbin has an undergraduate degree in Finance and Accounting from the State University of New York at Albany and a law degree from Golden Gate University School of Law. During the first two years following law school he clerked for Bankruptcy Court judges in Oakland, California, as well as Los Angeles. Over his career, he has associated with law firms in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Century City and New York, from which he represented a diverse group of corporate and institutional clients. Throughout his career, representation has included both sides of the creditor-debtor relationship, and nearly all parties in interest that may participate in either a bankruptcy case, bankruptcy litigation or state court litigation.
Louis Esbin assists corporate management and sole proprietorship clients in the course of assessing and minimizing risk and maximizing returns in regards to default situations and work out arrangements that may arise due to the current changes in interest rates and the (in)ability of borrowers to service loans while straining under increased household or business budget expenses. In response to the sweeping amendments to the Bankruptcy Code in 2005 Louis Esbin co-authored a book with three other certified specialists as a practice guide for other attorneys on how to practice bankruptcy law under the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention Consumer Protection Act. Very well received, the Practice Guide sits on judges benches as equally as lawyers desks. He is also currently editing the bankruptcy chapters of the CEB publication, California Mortgage & Deed of Trust Guide, an authoritative treatise used by banks, judges, and lawyers alike. He is a frequent lecturer to bar associations, accountants and realtors on the impact of bankruptcy on their clients, as well as their own businesses and business models.
Louis Esbin has been a member of the Newhall-Santa Clarita Rotary Club since 1993, serving at times as secretary and vocational chair. He has also presided as a Santa Clarita Community Court Judge since 2007, a one of kind diversion program for at risk youth. He believes that his responsibility is to be the emergency room surgeon of the economy and in his community, performing triage on clients to assist them in “seeing the forest from the trees” of economic despair and confusion.
LAW OFFICES OF LOUIS J. ESBIN
25129 The Old Road, Suite 114, Stevenson Ranch, California 91381
Tel: 661-254-5050 Fax: 661-254-5252 E-mail: Esbinlaw@sbcglobal.net | Web: www.esbinlaw.com
Louis Esbin accepts referrals from Realtors whose sellers or mortgage brokers whose clients are unable to make their regular monthly mortgage payments, either on a first or second or even a third mortgage. In a team effort, buyers are counseled by Mr. Esbin as to their rights and sometimes remedies in the course of a short sale/short pay, foreclosure, deed in lieu of foreclosure, surrender, or loan modification. Under California law, the issues are varied and complex. Sellers should not leave one of the most important financial decision to anyone other than a California State Bar Certified Bankruptcy Specialist (there are but about 120 such specialist in California, from about 250,000 licensed attorneys.)
Loan Modification companies are springing up faster than weeds in a summer meadow! Many are merely out to capitalize on the despair of others; similar to the lenders who dealt out mortgages to home owners looking to bridge the gap between wanting and affording. The loan modification companies' promises are often empty, but their pockets are full with credit card advances taken from unknowing home owners in despair. In the even to bankruptcy, those advances, ironically or sadly, may not be dischargeable!
California has a Foreclosure Consultants Statutes that strictly regulates such marketeers. But only through the guidance of experienced counsel can a homeowner be truly and honestly informed of their rights and what is in the best interest of their family. Mr. Esbin, working through the tried and true bankruptcy process, has developed a methodology to have bankruptcy courts value property in the course of a Chapter 13 or Chapter 11 case. The wholly undersecured junior lien holders are treated the same as credit card companies; usually receiving pennies on the dollar. If the homeowners makes their regular monthly mortgage and Chapter 13 or Chapter 11 Plan payment, the home can likely be saved! Once the Chapter 13 or Chapter 11 Plan is complete and a discharge is entered (relieving the Seller or homeowner of the balance of their debt), the junior liens are removed from title - as a matter of California law, not by slight of hand.
Often, even though the junior liens are no longer paid and their liens may eventually be removed, many homeowners still struggle with paying the first, especially one that is ready to adjust. Mr. Esbin believes that his second step in this process will gain relief for homeowners in bankruptcy. Many lenders, such as Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo and Bank of America, before ever considering a loan modification application, require the homeowner to default on the loan - an inducement to breach. But, the adverse effects from mortgage companies' techniques are horrific. Such lenders require the loan to go into default 60 to 90 days. Thereafter, the lender offers to "consider" a loan modification application, often on parallel track to foreclosure. Lenders know that in bankruptcy their first lien cannot be modified if it is secured by the residence. They also know, or believe, that Congress will not force them to modify loans. Mr. Esbin, however, has been seeking a remedy from the Bankruptcy Court to modify the first on grounds set forth under California and federal consumer protection laws. Only using this alternative methodology, not by slight of hand, can homeowners gain relief from the ravages of an adjustable mortgages, not otherwise modifiable in bankruptcy. And, certainly this is not a methodology or a remedy that can be obtained by less experienced attorneys or non-legal professionals.
The above discussed methodology is only now being debated in Congress for statutory implementation. But, Mr. Esbin has been representing clients in such cases for years! The first methodology is proven, while the second is at the forefront of legal practice with promising initial results. Orders have been entered. Lives and families have been saved! Foreclosures are slowed and communities spared the disaster of empty homes scattered about the neighborhoods.
Once the Chapter 13 or Chapter 11 process is complete, or even near completion, based upon the prior real estate cycle, Mr. Esbin has found that his clients are more creditworthy to refinance completely out of the bankruptcy, or take advantage of a stabilized real estate market to sell their home through the same agent that originally referred them to the
LAW OFFICES OF LOUIS J. ESBIN
25129 The Old Road, Suite 114, Stevenson Ranch, California 91381
Tel: 661-254-5050 Fax: 661-254-5252 E-mail: Esbinlaw@sbcglobal.net | Web: www.esbinlaw.com
Certified Bankruptcy Specialist. Foreclosures, Loan Modifications, Mortgages, Deeds of Trust, Chapter 7, 11, and 13. Appeals. Attorney to Attorneys and other Professionals. Community Court Judge.
