Defending Your Foreclosure Case in Illinois Court
Illinois is a judicial foreclosure state. A lender cannot take your home by filing paperwork with a county office - it has to sue you, and it has to satisfy a judge. That requirement is your leverage, and using it is what this part of the practice does.
We start with the file, not the story:
Before we tell you what we think, we read the complete court file and the documents recorded against your title. That is where the answers are: who actually filed, what they attached, whether the mortgage and note in the exhibits match the ones you signed, whether the assignments run in an unbroken line, and whether you were properly served.
Was the case brought correctly?
Foreclosure complaints in Illinois have specific requirements - among them, that a copy of the mortgage and the note be attached. Cases arrive with the wrong exhibits, with gaps in the chain of assignments, with a plaintiff whose right to enforce the note is not shown, and with service that never complied with the statute. Where that is true, we say so in a motion instead of letting it pass.
Answers and affirmative defenses:
An answer is not a formality. It is where the plaintiff's allegations get denied and put back on it to prove, and where defenses get raised that would otherwise be waived - failure to comply with pre-suit notice requirements, breach of the mortgage's own conditions precedent, misapplied payments, unauthorized charges, and servicing failures under federal regulation.
Discovery - making them show the numbers:
Servicers state a payoff figure in an affidavit and expect nobody to check it. We ask for the payment history, the escrow analysis, the corporate advances, the fee ledger and the documents behind the endorsements - and where the answers are incomplete, we say so in writing and take it to the judge.
Opposing summary judgment:
Most foreclosures are decided on a motion for summary judgment supported by an affidavit from a servicer employee about business records. Illinois Supreme Court Rule 113 sets requirements for those affidavits, and they are often not met. Testing the affidavit - who the person is, what they actually reviewed, whether the exhibits are what the affidavit says they are - is where a foreclosure case is most often won or narrowed.
Attorney's fees and the judgment amount:
The judgment figure is not a given. Fees and costs claimed by the plaintiff's firm have to be reasonable, and the itemization has to support them. We read those affidavits line by line.
Timing the sale:
Where a modification review is live, or the judgment amount is contested, there are motions that address the timing of the sale rather than only its merits. Managing that calendar is part of the defense, not separate from it.
Get a free case review. Call (312) 857-8320.