# "Foreclosure mill" law firm hosts homeless themed party **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 30, 2011, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreclosure-mill-law-firm-hosts-homeless-themed-party/601251 "2011-10-30T03:31:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreclosure-mill-law-firm-hosts-homeless-themed-party/601251/41 "2011-10-31T17:38:54Z")
> [@MsRobyn](#): > > If there is any justice in this world, lawyers who run foreclosure mills, collection agencies, and personal injury class-action lawsuit factories will spend their afterlife in the newly-constructed 10th Circle of Hell, where they will be forced to sit through endless robocalls threatening somebody they’ve never heard of who may or may not have had their number six years ago; commercials where constipated-looking actors promise financial compensation if you or someone you know have ever taken a drug or had an operation; and forced to read thousands of pages of densely-written legal boilerplate each day, with hourly quizzes for comprehension. They can share this Circle of Hell with Bernie Madoff and the gang from Enron. What the hell is wrong with personal injury class actions (extremely rare as they may be because PI suits rarely are appropriate to be certified as classes)? Should those who cause injury to large groups of people not be held responsible for their actions? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreclosure-mill-law-firm-hosts-homeless-themed-party/601251/42 "2011-10-31T17:42:58Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > Well if you’ve got nothin’why didn’t you say so in the first place? > > That way you’d have saved us all wasting a minute of our lives reading your attempt at a post. > > But please don’t let me keep you, I’m sure that you’ve got plenty of things to do, you know homework assignments, tidy your room etc. > > Cheerio now ! So not only do you not understand the definition of gallows humor nor the difference between a paragraph and sentence, but you also can’t process quotation marks? I don’t think Zeriel is the one that needs to be informed about college. ---
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreclosure-mill-law-firm-hosts-homeless-themed-party/601251/43 "2011-10-31T17:47:48Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > Well if you’ve got nothin’why didn’t you say so in the first place? > > That way you’d have saved us all wasting a minute of our lives reading your attempt at a post. > > But please don’t let me keep you, I’m sure that you’ve got plenty of things to do, you know homework assignments, tidy your room etc. > > Cheerio now ! And you’re telling people to work on reading comprehension? You’re so thick, ice cream parlors use your face in milkshake adverts. ---
**Author:** ![miss\_elizabeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@miss\_elizabeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miss_elizabeth)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreclosure-mill-law-firm-hosts-homeless-themed-party/601251/44 "2011-10-31T17:51:30Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > I haven’t really got a lot of sympathy for the many who bought properties that they knew that they’d never ever realisticly be able to pay for, but were either hoping to sell it on in a short time to make a quick profit , or more bizarely just didn’t think beyond the first few payments. How lovely for you, hun. Now, the grownups are talking… why don’t you run along and go see if Sesame Street is playing? ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreclosure-mill-law-firm-hosts-homeless-themed-party/601251/45 "2011-10-31T18:07:57Z")
What percentage of all the people forclosed upon were self-beguiled house-flippers, VS people who just wanted to stop being rental victims and build some modest equity for a couple of decades? 85%? 50%? Is that also why unemployment is so high: everyone job-hopped until the corporations had no choice but to move the jobs offshore, where loyal workers could be counted on to stay in steady positions; in the same cities as their spouses’ jobs so their marriages wouldn’t disintegrate; and their kids would have some stability in the same school system? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreclosure-mill-law-firm-hosts-homeless-themed-party/601251/46 "2011-10-31T18:09:03Z")
Leaving aside for the last that Lust4Life is a semi-literate moron, I remain absolutely flabbergasted that people today still do not seem to understand that you can transmit pictures over the Internet. It appears the case that Baum is made up of people who are either totally amoral, predatory scum, or who’ve been turned into amoral, predatory scum by the nature of the evil business they work for. Fine; those of us with IQs above 90 agree on that. But if you’re a pack of amoral, predatory scum and you know damn well that you are - and they people know damn well that they are and don’t try to tell me otherwise - why in the name of Christ would you publicly announce that you’re evil and horrible? Why, especially, would you publicly announce that you’re evil and horrible when you have legal proceedings against you which a public announcement of being dedicated to evil would harm you in? Now, of course, you’re thinking “well, this was a Hallowe’en party, not a public announcement” but that’s my point. In the age of smartphones and the Internet, \*\*every large gathering is a public announcement. \*\* Unless you’re equipped for real security, every single party, conference and social event your organization will ever throw from now on is, in effect, a press conference. Just last night one NHL hockey player at a private party who dressed up as Jay-Z including blackface was being ripped for allegedly wearing a racist costume. I think the allegations are silly in that case, but it was 100% inevitable that the pictures would end up on the Internet. I’m not even a public figure but believe me, I know any time I go to a social, I assume that shit’s going on the Internet. That Baum would do something so hideously cold-hearted that supports the impression people already have of them being evil is just so collosally self-centred and imbecilic that this company clearly should not exist, and I quite honestly hope every single person at that party loses their job, because unlike most people, they deserve to. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreclosure-mill-law-firm-hosts-homeless-themed-party/601251/47 "2011-10-31T20:35:24Z")
I’m guessing, **RickJay** , that the answer is that, for these people (or at least for the firm itself), there is basically very little downside to this exposure. The banks and other financial institutions that use their services have made very clear over the past couple of years that they don’t give too much of a flying fuck about the fact that nearly everyone hates their guts. These institutions aren’t going to stop using Assholes Esq. just because said assholes have revealed themselves to have hearts of coal. The banks need law firms to process these foreclosures, and as long as this firm does that in the expected manner, the banks will keep hiring them. The mortgage crisis itself, with all of its attendant misery, also isn’t going away anytime soon, so there will be plenty of business for law firms like this, and it’s not like the people they are mocking are the same people who are actually paying for their services. Basically, the firm isn’t in any real danger of losing business due to this exposure, because the people who provide the firm’s income seem to feel pretty much the same way about folks who have lost their homes, and the folks who have lost their homes don’t have any power to affect the firm’s income. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreclosure-mill-law-firm-hosts-homeless-themed-party/601251/48 "2011-10-31T20:59:29Z")
In other words, if you want to hire a guy to rough someone up for you, you look for a guy who has no problem roughing people up. Ruthlessnes, for him, is a selling point. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreclosure-mill-law-firm-hosts-homeless-themed-party/601251/49 "2011-10-31T22:50:27Z")
Being ruthless is one thing, cutting corners and acting like everyone who stands up to you is a deadbeat or is wasting time is pure arrogance. They’re a volume business, so they probably get paid per file they close rather than an hourly rate, but this doesn’t mean they get to ignore the law in order to hurry things along. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreclosure-mill-law-firm-hosts-homeless-themed-party/601251/50 "2011-10-31T23:01:24Z")
As far as their clients are concerned, sure they do. ---
**Author:** ![Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swords_to_Plowshares)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreclosure-mill-law-firm-hosts-homeless-themed-party/601251/51 "2011-10-31T23:10:58Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > What percentage of all the people forclosed upon were self-beguiled house-flippers, VS people who just wanted to stop being rental victims and build some modest equity for a couple of decades? 85%? 50%? > > Is that also why unemployment is so high: everyone job-hopped until the corporations had no choice but to move the jobs offshore, where loyal workers could be counted on to stay in steady positions; in the same cities as their spouses’ jobs so their marriages wouldn’t disintegrate; and their kids would have some stability in the same school system? Are you fucking kidding me? You’re blaming the high unemployment on greedy employees who keep job-hopping to get the best deal? You’re kidding me, right? Yeah, you got it. It certainly had nothing to do with demand crashing down or the massive crash in home prices, that’s for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreclosure-mill-law-firm-hosts-homeless-themed-party/601251/52 "2011-10-31T23:26:23Z")
> [@Swords\_to\_Plowshares](#): > > Are you fucking kidding me? You’re blaming the high unemployment on greedy employees who keep job-hopping to get the best deal? > > You’re kidding me, right? Yeah, you got it. It certainly had nothing to do with demand crashing down or the massive crash in home prices, that’s for sure. What’s that whooshing noise? ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreclosure-mill-law-firm-hosts-homeless-themed-party/601251/53 "2011-11-01T00:22:13Z")
I also blame the decline in our educational system on the fact that kids in school can’t stop thinking 'bout them two scoops of raisins in Kellog’s Raisin Bran. ---
**Author:** ![Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swords_to_Plowshares)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreclosure-mill-law-firm-hosts-homeless-themed-party/601251/54 "2011-11-01T00:26:59Z")
> [@Zeriel](#): > > What’s that whooshing noise? I’ve seen far worse shit attempt to get passed off as an opinion on these boards. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreclosure-mill-law-firm-hosts-homeless-themed-party/601251/55 "2011-11-01T00:27:50Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > I’m guessing, **RickJay** , that the answer is that, for these people (or at least for the firm itself), there is basically very little downside to this exposure. > > The banks and other financial institutions that use their services have made very clear over the past couple of years that they don’t give too much of a flying fuck about the fact that nearly everyone hates their guts. But the thing is that you generally don’t know who the hell they are. If you showed me 500 random guys in suits and said half of them were the Goldman Sachs thieves who looted the taxpayer, I wouldn’t know who they were. Heck, I’d never even heard of this Baum firm before, but now I and 200,000,000 other people know who they are. Now these folks are the face of greed. Those two bitches pretending to be homeless in the one photo? Their names will be all across the internet in a week and the 4chan and Anonymous people will hack evey account they have. Their own friends, the ones who aren’t in banking, anyway, will think less of them. Their parents are probably calling them right now and Dad’s asking “What the hell were you thinking?” If you’re going to rob people you’re supposed to have the decency to wear a mask. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreclosure-mill-law-firm-hosts-homeless-themed-party/601251/56 "2011-11-01T02:23:16Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > But the thing is that you generally don’t know who the hell they are. If you showed me 500 random guys in suits and said half of them were the Goldman Sachs thieves who looted the taxpayer, I wouldn’t know who they were. Heck, I’d never even heard of this Baum firm before, but now I and 200,000,000 other people know who they are. > > Now these folks are the face of greed. Those two bitches pretending to be homeless in the one photo? Their names will be all across the internet in a week and the 4chan and Anonymous people will hack evey account they have. Their own friends, the ones who aren’t in banking, anyway, will think less of them. Their parents are probably calling them right now and Dad’s asking “What the hell were you thinking?” Please God, please please please let this happen. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreclosure-mill-law-firm-hosts-homeless-themed-party/601251/57 "2011-11-01T02:57:36Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > Gallows humor is a way for people IN the stressful situation to deal with it emotionally, it’s not a way for people who CREATE the stressful situation to make fun of the people they are crushing. Knowing people who work in this field, they find taking people’s homes off them stressful because they are human. No wait, what am I thinking? These people are inhuman. They eat babies. I know for a fact because someone once told me that they wear helmets with spikes on their head when cameras are not on them, just like Nazis. No, wait, wrong war, but anyway, that’s what they do. Sorry, I’ll be quiet now and you may carry on with the regular “people who work in banks are sub-human” thread. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreclosure-mill-law-firm-hosts-homeless-themed-party/601251/58 "2011-11-01T03:01:38Z")
True, but there’s a difference if the gallows humor is being used by the relatives of the guy who just got hanged or by the hangman. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreclosure-mill-law-firm-hosts-homeless-themed-party/601251/59 "2011-11-01T03:08:31Z")
The hangmen joke amongst themselves in a sick way, probably, just like nurses do and doctors do and soldiers do. ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreclosure-mill-law-firm-hosts-homeless-themed-party/601251/60 "2011-11-01T04:16:30Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Knowing people who work in this field, they find taking people’s homes off them stressful because they are human. Also, the possibility that they’ll actually get punished for the pervasive fraud in their industry. I mean, it’s not like they’ll go to jail, or anything, but Eric Schneiderman seems like he wants to look into things, rather than going with the Obama Administration’s plan to pass out the slaps on the wrist and “don’t do it agains”, and that could hurt those year end bonuses. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreclosure-mill-law-firm-hosts-homeless-themed-party/601251.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreclosure-mill-law-firm-hosts-homeless-themed-party/601251.md?page=4)