Calif. Lawyer: Break Back Into Your Foreclosed Homes

Radical attorney helps clients squat in bank-owned properties
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 14, 2011 2:01 AM CST
Calif. Lawyer: Break Back Into Your Foreclosed Homes
A foreclosure sign is shown through a front gate of a foreclosed home in Oakland, Calif.    (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

One California attorney isn't afraid of getting on the wrong side of the law to help clients who have been evicted from their homes. Michael T. Pines of Pines & Associates advises clients to break into their foreclosed homes and live there illegally. He has personally broken into at least six homes, leaving clients to live there while he defends their right to possession, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Pines—who says he was himself the victim of unscrupulous lenders—has won plenty of attention and criticism with his unconventional methods, but he has yet to win a foreclosure case. His most high-profile client was baseball legend Lenny Dykstra, who fired Pines after the lawyer advised him to move back into his foreclosed home against a judge's orders. Dykstra was swiftly barred from the property and lost it at a foreclosure sale soon after. (More foreclosures stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X