'Fake' lawyers arrested: foreclosure defense firm alleged to have preyed on young lawyers via Craigslist.

The Attorney General's Office filed an action in August to stop a group of South Florida nonlawyers who allegedly ran illegitimate foreclosure defense and loan modification law firms that also recruited unsuspecting young lawyers through Craigslist ads to front their operations.

Adam Todd Forman, Joseph Anton Hilton--aka Joseph Starr--Victor Spagnuolo, and others, all of whom are not lawyers, operate the Asset Protection Law Firm, Heritage Law Group, Liberty Law Group, Consumer Legal Resources, Consumer Legal Advocates, Legal Referral Services, Galler Lehman Law, and Selective Housing Solutions.

According to the AG's civil injunctive complaint, the defendants, through these firms, unlawfully deceived homeowners into paying hefty up-front and monthly fees for legal services not supervised or approved by licensed attorneys.

Forman, 46, and Hilton, 56, are also facing criminal charges of practicing law without licenses.

"Florida homeowners facing the stress of foreclosure should not have to worry about scammers posing as lawyers and making false promises of relief to get what little money the homeowners may have," AG Pam Bondi said.

Florida Bar UPL counsel worked closely with the Attorney General's Office and local and federal law enforcement officials throughout the investigation.

According to the complaint, the defendants, "created one fake law firm after another," leaving behind a string of victims who have lost or are about to lose their homes as a result of their actions.

"The nonlawyers have also jeopardized the future careers of several licensed attorneys who were unknowingly and unwittingly utilized as the 'front men' for the fake law firms," the complaint said. "The homeowner clients believed these licensed attorneys were representing them when, in fact, the attorneys had absolutely no idea the clients even existed."

These are the same nonlawyer entities that offered young, inexperienced lawyers jobs involving foreclosure-related rescue services through Craigslist ads as detailed in a June 15 News story, said Will Spillias, the Bar's UPL counsel in Tallahassee. He added the unsuspecting young lawyers thought they were signing up for part-time work and suddenly--and without their consent--found themselves as attorney of record in hundreds of cases or listed with the state as corporate directors for multiple entities.

According to the AG's complaint, the scam's modus operandi was to hire contract lawyers through Craigslist and deceive...