Paperwork

Federal and state officials are analyzing proposals that could help people who lost their homes or missed mortgage payments as a key part in resolving a multibillion-dollar case over botched foreclosure paperwork. Government negotiators are wrestling with banks and their mortgage servicing arms over the amount of the settlement ? from $5 billion to $20 billion ? and then must decide how best to use the money. "We are getting close to a critical phase of negotiations," said Geoff Greenwood, spokesman for Iowa Atty.

Mystery writer Raymond Chandler and his wife Cissy were reunited Monday ? more than 50 years after their deaths. Cissy's ashes were relocated to Chandler's grave site at Mount Hope Cemetery in San Diego, thanks to the persistence of a group of Chandler fans and the approval of a San Diego judge. About a hundred people, some of whom arrived in classic automobiles from the eras captured in Chandler's books, witnessed the reburial. Actor Powers Boothe, who played Chandler's famous private eye Philip Marlowe on television, was among the speakers.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. plans to lift its 40-state freeze on home foreclosures later in November but said it would take several months to redo improperly filed paperwork. The company, the No. 3 U.S. mortgage lender, imposed the freeze on about 127,000 delinquent home loans last month to assess whether they were being handled correctly. The loans were made in states that require court orders for foreclosures and states with relatively complicated nonjudicial processes, but not in California and other states with streamlined procedures.

Wells Fargo & Co. said Wednesday it would refile paperwork in 55,000 foreclosure cases because of mistakes in some of the documents but said it wouldn't suspend efforts to seize borrowers' homes as some other mortgage firms have done. Mike Heid, co-president of the San Francisco bank's home lending unit, said Wells had identified potential problems with the final sign-offs by bank employees and notaries on legal affidavits. That is the same problem reported by three major rivals in the mortgage customer-service business.

Regulators should have foreseen a wave of suspect foreclosure paperwork coming, a key official admitted Monday as federal banking agencies said they had launched their own in-depth review of the issue. "In retrospect, there were warning signs that servicing standards were eroding," Sheila Bair, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., told a housing finance conference in Arlington, Va. "Those signs should have caused market participants and regulators alike to question current practices.

California will join a multistate investigation into whether banks violated laws by cutting corners while foreclosing on homes as the Obama administration made clear Tuesday that it would not support a nationwide moratorium. The moves came as one of the nation's major lenders, Ally Financial Inc., said it would expand the review of its foreclosure practices nationally to include states such as California where courts do not hold jurisdiction over the process. The company stopped short of saying it would suspend foreclosure sales in all 50 states, as Bank of America Corp.

California officials are considering joining a multistate investigation of whether lenders have violated foreclosure laws when seizing houses from delinquent borrowers. The investigation, which is expected to be publicly announced Wednesday, is spearheaded by Iowa Atty. Gen. Tom Miller. Under his leadership, coalitions of states have won lending-abuse settlements of $484 million from Household International Inc. and $325 million from Ameriquest Mortgage Co. The probe stems from disclosures that some major lenders filed faulty paperwork in the 23 judicial foreclosure states ?

Political pressure on some of the nation's biggest financial institutions grew Tuesday as a California lawmaker and the state's congressional delegation called on regulators to investigate the foreclosure practices of big banks. The actions follow several recent announcements by three major lenders that they are halting evictions and some foreclosure proceedings, citing concerns over possible mistakes in their handling of the paperwork. These freezes are taking place in 23 states where courts have jurisdiction over the foreclosure process; they do not apply in California and other states where foreclosures usually take place without a court order.

Citing concerns over whether its foreclosure paperwork was handled properly, Bank of America Corp. on Friday put evictions on hold in 23 states ? joining two rivals that have taken similar steps. The freeze is taking place in states where courts have jurisdiction over foreclosures, Bank of America said. It will not apply to California and 26 other states where foreclosures usually take place without a court order, but the action could put added pressure on banks to ease back on foreclosures more broadly amid high unemployment and continued turmoil in the housing market.

One way or another, the legal apparatus of California seems determined to get Bruce Lisker. The pursuit continues despite the fact that his murder conviction — for which he spent 26 years in prison — was overturned last year when a federal judge concluded that the original case against him was based on sloppy police work, incompetent representation by his attorney and "false evidence. " Ordinarily, defendants are convicted and imprisoned based on strong evidence and solid facts that lead to a determination of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.