Law Offices of Judy T. Campbell

Property, Title, mortgage, closing, we are your one and only choice. #rbkwhiteacre #theultimatecloser #soverignhomes #crosscountrymortgage

Here's a pratical resource to bear in mind, while writing a date on any document in the upcoming year 2020, it is adviseable for us to write it in its complete/...full format, e.g. 27/01/2020 and not as 27/01/20. Anyone with deceptive intent can change it to 27/01/2000 or 27/01/2019 or in between any year to suit their convenience. That can render any document invalid. So be cautious about this. Don't write or accept it in any documentation. This problem will persist only during the year 2020. Copied

Scams no longer take place solely on email and by phone. According to Statista, over 2.5 billion people worldwide used social media in 2018. This, unfortunately, provides the perfect grouping of unsuspecting victims for scammers. While many post on social media daily, the majority of users have difficulty spotting scams before they’ve been compromisedand within the real estate space, users can lose out on more than just data, risking not only their safety, but their belongin...gs and money, as well. Here’s what real estate agents and consumers should look out for on social media: Fake Listings and Rentals There’s a reason for the saying, It’s too good to be true. Oftentimes, consumers see a rental or listing for an incredible, low price. While the photos may look great on Facebook and Instagram, this should be the biggest indicator that the property may not be legitimate. Where renters or buyers have to be most wary is communicating with the agent or owner who posted the listing. If there are any requests to wire funds up front, or for sensitive information such as Social Security numbers before even seeing the property, consumers should walk away and report the incident to the police. This is where working with a vetted real estate agent comes in handy. They can help consumers determine if a listing is legitimate or if it appears to be a scam. Additionally, agents work with other licensed agents who are listing rentals or properties for sale, ensuring transactions and all involved parties are valid and safe. By working with unvetted online leads, consumers put themselves at risk. Scammers Impersonating Agents or Buyers/Renters This can go both ways. With social media, it can be difficult to vet an individual. Anyone can go online and say they are a real estate agent or someone who is looking to buy or rent real estate. Social media users today need to be savvy when hiring someone or deciding to work with them. No formal business page A lack of online reviews No link to a website with their license number No references to real estate on their social media pages An unwillingness to meet in person For agents hoping to find clients via social media, these are the red flags: Profiles that are relatively sparse and don’t have a single personal picture Accounts that were recently created Individuals against providing information to run a credit report Buyers who refuse to be vetted by a lender before looking at homes Individuals who will not verify their identity with an ID before seeing a home In essence, individuals should never meet someone in person without first identifying who they are speaking with. Agents meeting with leads they connected with via social media should notify their office of their meeting place and time, as well as provide them with the names of the people they are meeting. On the consumer side, money should never change hands before a property viewing and until legitimate contracts are involved. Liz Dominguez is RISMe

Supreme Court Limits Police Powers to Seize Private Property WASHINGTON The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that the Constitution places limits on the abilit...y of states and localities to take and keep cash, cars, houses and other private property used to commit crimes. The practice, known as civil forfeiture, is a popular way to raise revenue and is easily abused, and it has been the subject of widespread criticism across the political spectrum. The court’s decision will open the door to new legal arguments when the value of the property seized was out of proportion to the crimes involved. In this case, the court sided with Tyson Timbs, a small-time drug offender in Indiana who pleaded guilty to selling $225 of heroin to undercover police officers. He was sentenced to one year of house arrest and five years of probation, and was ordered to pay $1,200 in fees and fines. State officials also seized Mr. Timbs’s $42,000 Land Rover, which he had bought with the proceeds of his father’s life insurance policy, saying he had used it to commit crimes. The Supreme Court has ruled that the Eighth Amendment, which bars excessive fines, limits the ability of the federal government to seize property. On Wednesday, in a 9-to-0 decision that united justices on the left and right, the court ruled that the clause also applies to the states under the 14th Amendment, one of the post-Civil War amendments. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for eight justices, said the question before the court was an easy one. The historical and logical case for concluding that the 14th Amendment incorporates the Excessive Fines Clause is overwhelming, she wrote. For good reason, the protection against excessive fines has been a constant shield throughout Anglo-American history: Exorbitant tolls undermine other constitutional liberties, she wrote. Excessive fines can be used, for example, to retaliate against or chill the speech of political enemies. Quoting from an earlier decision, she wrote that even absent a political motive, fines may be employed ‘in a measure out of accord with the penal goals of retribution and deterrence,’ for ‘fines are a source of revenue,’ while other forms of punishment ‘cost a state money.’ Justice Ginsburg also wrote that excessive fines have played a dark role in this nation’s history. Following the Civil War, she wrote, Southern states enacted Black Codes to subjugate newly freed slaves and maintain the prewar racial hierarchy. Among these laws’ provisions were draconian fines for violating broad proscriptions on ‘vagrancy’ and other dubious offenses. The decision will not halt civil forfeitures, said Wesley P. Hottot, a lawyer with the Institute for Justice, which represented the Land Rover’s owner. People are still going to lose their property without being convicted of a crime, they’re still going to have their property seized, Mr. Hottot said. The new thing is that they can now say at the end of it all, whether I’m guilty or not, I can argue that it was excessive. Law enforcement agencies have resisted efforts to curtail civil forfeiture, saying they rely on the proceeds for sorely needed equipment. It is difficult, if not impossible, to calculate the total value of civil forfeitures by local police departments and prosecutors, but a significant portion comes from joint operations with federal law enforcement and is tracked by the Justice Department. In fiscal year 2018, state and local agencies received $400 million through this arrangement, known as equitable sharing. The amount varied widely by agency the Surprise Police Department in Arizona received $570,000, while the Buffalo Police Department in upstate New York got $130,000. The New York Police Department took in $7.8 million. In Philadelphia, forfeiture proceeds once accounted for 20 percent of prosecutors’ budget, while agencies in New York and California tended to take in the highest sums, according to the Institute for Justice. Investigations across the country have uncovered many examples where the property seized was disproportionate to the crime, taken from innocent citizens or targeted in accordance with law enforcement wish lists. As its name suggests, a civil forfeiture does not require a criminal conviction or even criminal charges but only proof that the property at issue was used in connection with a crime. Owners who wish to reclaim their property must demonstrate that it was not, or that it was used without their knowledge. A recent series of articles by the Greenville News examined every civil forfeiture case in South Carolina from 2014 to 2016, finding examples like that of Ella Bromell, a 72-year-old woman who had to fight off the forfeiture of her home after drug dealers conducted transactions on her property, despite Ms. Bromell’s multiple attempts to stop them. In a similar case in Philadelphia, where law enforcement agencies once took in $5.6 million a year in civil forfeiture, according to the Institute for Justice, a couple’s home was seized in 2014 after their son was arrested on charges of making a $40 drug sale there. A case against the city’s forfeiture practices was finally settled last year. Justice Ginsburg suggested that the effect of the ruling could be limited. All 50 states, she wrote, have a constitutional provision prohibiting the imposition of excessive fines either directly or by requiring proportionality. Wednesday’s decision may influence how state courts interpret those provisions, and they may use them to scrutinize civil forfeitures more closely. The Supreme Court had already ruled that most of the protections in the Bill of Rights, which originally restricted the power of only the federal government, also applied to the states under the 14th Amendment. The court left open the question of whether the seizure of Mr. Timbs’s Land Rover amounted to an excessive fine, leaving its resolution to lower courts. But Justice Ginsburg suggested that the penalty was disproportionate to the offense, writing that the vehicle was worth more than four times the maximum $10,000 monetary fine assessable against him for his drug conviction. Justice Clarence Thomas agreed with the result in the case, Timbs v. Indiana, No. 17-1091, but said he would have gotten to the same place by a different route. While the majority on Wednesday relied on the due process clause of the 14th Amendment, Justice Thomas said he would have ruled the right to be free from excessive fines is one of the ‘privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States’ protected by the 14th Amendment. The difference between the two approaches was meaningful, he wrote, accusing the Supreme Court of misplaced reliance on the due process clause to establish substantive constitutional rights like ones to abortion and same-sex marriage. Justice Thomas did not address objections to modern civil forfeiture practices on Wednesday. In a 2017 opinion, though, he wrote that this system where police can seize property with limited judicial oversight and retain it for their own use has led to egregious and well-chronicled abuses. His opinion cited reporting from The Washington Post and The New Yorker. Mr. Hottot, who argued on behalf of Mr. Timbs, said courts alone cannot address the abuses inherent in civil forfeiture. Police and prosecutors will continue to engage in this kind of policing for profit unless and until legislatures no longer allow them to keep 100 percent of the proceeds to forfeitures, he said. He added that Wednesday’s ruling could nonetheless bring needed scrutiny to the issue. Police and prosecutors have no incentive to be reasonable about what they take because they get to keep everything they take, he said. Now we know that judges at the end of the process have to evaluate if that’s really justice or not. Adam Liptak reported from Washington, and Shaila Dewan from New York. RELATED COVERAGE He Sold Drugs for $225. Indiana Took His $42,000 Land Rover. June 25, 2018 Sign up for a limited-run newsletter about life on the U.S.-Mexico border, far from the politics of Washington. See more

(Copied from Article) If you’re not sure whether Original Medicare will pay for a particular test or medical service your doctor says you need, the answer could be as close as a new app on your phone or other mobile device. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) unveiled the new tool called What's Covered on Monday. It is available in GooglePlay and the AppleApp Store. You can look for a particular service or test by typing a description into the search bar, a...nd the app allows you to browse all services via an alphabetized list of everything from acupuncture to yearly wellness visits. It also provides a list of preventative services that Medicare pays for, and a help feature lets you call the Medicare hotline (800-Medicare; 800-633-4227) or takes you to the full Medicare.gov website. The app is part of the CMS eMedicare initiative, which is focused on modernizing Medicare and empowering patients with information they need to get the best value from their Medicare coverage, says CMS Administrator Seema Verma. CMS officials say questions about what Medicare covers account for about 15 million page views on the agency’s website each year, and the Medicare hotline gets more than three million coverage-related calls every year. See more

(Copied from Article) The U.S. Department of Justice said Sunday it will work with the Bureau of Prisons to examine what happened at a federal detention center in Brooklyn that had lost heat and electricity last week and to ensure that it has a backup system in place. In the coming days, the Department will work with the Bureau of Prisons to examine what happened and ensure the facility has the power, heat and backup systems in place to prevent the problem from re-occurring,...Continue reading

(Copied from Article) Ding-dong, your doorbell is looking a bit creepy. Ring video doorbells, Nest Hello and other connected security cameras are the fastest-growing home improvement gadgets since garage-door openers. These cameras, often built into buzzers, alert your phone when someone is at your door and save footage online. Mine has helped me get deliveries and catch porch pirates stealing packages. Earlier this month, one caught a man licking a family’s doorbell for thre...Continue reading

Property, Title, mortgage, closing, we are your one and only choice. #rbkwhiteacre #theultimatecloser #soverignhomes #crosscountrymortgage

Here's a pratical resource to bear in mind, while writing a date on any document in the upcoming year 2020, it is adviseable for us to write it in its complete/...full format, e.g. 27/01/2020 and not as 27/01/20. Anyone with deceptive intent can change it to 27/01/2000 or 27/01/2019 or in between any year to suit their convenience. That can render any document invalid. So be cautious about this. Don't write or accept it in any documentation. This problem will persist only during the year 2020. Copied

http://blog.rismedia.com//analysis-benefits-mortgage-sho/ The average homebuyer spends countless hours online looking at listings, views more than four homes, attends approximately two open houses and typically makes two offers on a home. However, according to a recent Zillow analysis, one of the most important things they overlook when shopping around is trying to find the best mortgage rate. Related: 6 Questions to Ask Your Lender Before You Get a Mortgage... Many buyers settle on the first rate that they’re offered. However, this could be a mistake that could cost thousands of dollars over the several years spent living in the home. Homebuyers with less than stellar credit scores, in particular, stand to benefit the most from shopping around for a mortgage. The median rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage offered to those with credit scores of 760 or higherconsidered excellent and low-riskwas 4.54 percent, according to Zillow. For those with credit scores in the 620-639 range, the median rate was 5.48 percenta difference of nearly a full percentage point. "Finding the right home and neighborhood, and agonizing over how much you can actually afford to bid, can be so overwhelming that optimizing the nuts and bolts of your mortgage, admittedly the driest and arguably the murkiest part of the process, can be overlooked at a big eventual cost," says Skylar Olsen, director of Economic Research at Zillow. Below is a partial list of cities compiled by Zillow that shows the typical savings a homebuyer could expect to see based on whether or not their credit score is above or below 680: