WASHINGTON - January 26, 2011 - Among the many legal problems now being discovered with the foreclosure documents that banks have been using are false notarizations. The most typical variety of this problem occurs when a notary certifies that the person whose signature appears on a document really did sign it, even though the notary didn't witness the signing.

While such false notarizing is criminal, I've not yet heard of any notaries being charged. However, in Maryland, Steve Lash of The Daily Record reports that 18 current and former notaries have invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in a foreclosure case.

The notaries were brought before the court in proceedings involving a lawyer who didn't actually sign numerous foreclosure documents that were nonetheless notarized saying he did. The judge excused the notaries from the proceedings after they took the Fifth, and apparently they aren't facing prosecution.

In Massachusetts, where a recent top court ruling has jeopardized many completed foreclosures but didn't address what happens to the innocent buyers, the issue will be resolved soon. The Massachusetts high court has agreed to hear the appeal in Bevilacqua v. Rodriguez, a case in which the innocent buyer had tried to clear the title to his property, only to be told by the judge that he didn't own the property. That's because the bank that foreclosed on the former owner didn't own the mortgage when it foreclosed, so it couldn't take title to the property. Since the bank couldn't take title, it couldn't sell the property either.