On the Record

On the cover: With their progressive pilot potentially on the chopping block, the OPD’s Neighborhood Defenders in Park Heights are defending not only their clients but their problem-solving approach. Also, Caryn Tamber talks to University of Maryland law professor Danielle Citron about her research into online gender harassment and the law.

In the news: An EPA official says the agency wants more weapons in its arsenal; Maryland’s top court upholds a sex-abuse conviction based on the testimony of a 6-year-old victim; Mike’s Train House is sued for infringement; and an offshoot of the “driving while black” case will be the subject of a rare Court of Special Appeals en banc hearing.

 Also:

• Verdicts & Settlements features the case of an HIV-positive teacher who was fired from his job at a private elementary school in Arnold.

• Before there was “The Power of Nice” or his success as a sports agent, there was the Modern Bar Review Course. In My First/Business, Ron Shapiro reflects on the lessons learned from his initial foray into commerce.

• In Opinion/Commentary, Jack L.B. Gohn weighs in on the narrowing difference between blogs and journalism, while Edward J. Levin points out a key requirement under a Maryland deed of trust: naming an individual as the trustee. 

• Catch up with our Week in Review and the Law Digest, this week with cases from the Maryland Court of Appeals, Court of Special Appeals and the Office of Administrative Hearings.

Sometimes what surprises you in life is what you don’t see, like someone gets a haircut shorter than usual.

Case in point: I was walking through a second-floor hallway on the Bosley Avenue side of Baltimore County Circuit Court building in Towson on Tuesday morning when I did a double-take. Dozens of hulking metal shelves and filing cabinets had been ripped out of the floor, leaving an open space more than 50 feet long by my rough estimate. It looked like part of a forest had been cleared for new development.

The shelves and cabinets used to hold land records, but those were removed last year after all of the paperwork was scanned into computers, according to a few title researchers I talked to. The shelves and cabinets sat empty until they were removed last week.

Tim Sheridan, the court’s administrator, said the space will remain empty for now but said it could eventually become additional office space for the clerk of the court, which currently occupies much of the second floor.

Normally, I wouldn’t pass along something that is possibly apocryphal, but today I found it apropos.

I closed on a mortgage refinancing this morning. The process was relatively painless, just lots of paperwork to sign and initial. Part of the closing costs includes title charges. My building is only five years old and I’m only the second owner of my condo, so the title abstract, I would assume, is brief and easy to locate.

So I laughed when I found in my inbox an e-mail about a New Orleans lawyer trying to secure a Federal Housing Loan for a client. The lawyer was told the loan would be granted if he could provide the title to a property being offered as collateral. The challenge? The title dated back to 1803.

It took the lawyer three months to track down the title, after which he sent it to the FHA. The agency responded in part:

While we compliment the able manner in which you have prepared and presented the application, we must point out that you have only cleared title to the proposed collateral property back to 1803. Before final approval can be accorded, it will be necessary to clear the title back to its origin.

The lawyer then wrote back a letter that began:

I note that you wish to have title extended further than the 194 years covered by the present application. I was unaware that any educated person in this country particularly those working in the property area, would not know that Louisiana was purchased, by the U.S., from France in 1803, the year of origin identified in our application.

You can see the lawyer’s entire response here. The loan was ultimately approved.

This is the third in an occasional series of interviews with local businesspeople who blog or use social media to promote themselves or their industry. Our goal is to show the business and legal community how to harness the power of the Web professionally. If you’re interested in being profiled, contact @mddailyrecord on Twitter or email jackie.sauter[at]mddailyrecord.com.

In step with Derek Massey, attorney and president of Mid-Atlantic Settlement Services.

Hi, Derek. Tell us about yourself and where you blog from.

I’m the president of Mid-Atlantic Settlement Services, a title and closing company headquartered here in Hunt Valley, MD. My main business blog is www.masettlement.blogspot.com. I have another blog in the works, but it’s not quite ready for public consumption yet!

What prompted you to start?

I believe in open, honest, timely communication, and I’m somewhat of a tech geek. Put that together, and why wouldn’t you embrace the blogging and social media world? I am somewhat new to this – maybe a year in. Twitter has really opened my eyes to how much my industry (real estate) embraces and utilizes blogging. Probably my biggest influence is the Real Estate BarCamp movement, which really showed me what social media is doing for this industry.

How long have you Twittered and what do you like about the service?

According to www.whendidyoujointwitter.com I joined on May 29, 2008. So it’s been a little less than a year. I tweet under @DerekMassey and my company, @MASettlement. To me, Twitter is the only one of the major social media sites that helps me meet new people, and not just keep in touch with existing friends. Twitter’s low connectivity barrier (no “request” and “accept” requirement) makes it very easy to reach out and shake hands with people you’ve never met, and then keep in touch and cultivate the relationship.

What’s your favorite part of using social media?

I’m always connected with someone when I want to be. Friends, clients, potential clients, co-workers…they are all a click or two away. And if I want to shut down, I can shut down. I love learning new things. I believe I actually do business differently now. I connect with people more regularly, and even when I’m in the office or at home, I’m completely in touch.

List three or four of the blogs you visit the most.

My favorite real estate blog is Read the rest of this entry »

For homebuyers who just can’t bear the thought of driving around a free-but-gas-guzzling SUV, realtors in Spain are offering the next big incentive: a free divorce.

Spanish real estate company Geimsa is throwing in a divorce lawyer with the purhcase of a three-bedroom house (minimum $89,000) in the Andalucian province of Huelva, Spain, according to a recent UPI article.

Officials with Geimsa realtors said the deal is aimed at couples who have been postponing divorce because they can’t afford new homes, Britain’s The Daily Telegraph reported Thursday.

“A divorce is very expensive,” said Vanesa Contioso of Geimsa. “So we are offering new clients the free use of our lawyers to handle the process.”

That sure beats a free lunch.

Hat tip: Maryland Divorce Legal Crier.

The Post had a story the other day on Christian real estate agents who market themselves to other Christians. Not that it’s an exclusive phenomenon — there are Jewish referral networks and agencies that cater to observant Muslims, for example — but in recent years, the Post says, “an increasing number of real estate agents have begun using Christian messages to market their businesses.”

From the article:

Nonetheless, groups such as the Christian Real Estate Network, or brokers such as [Philip] DeLizio, are walking a fine line, even if they use a disclaimer, said Connie Chamberlin, president of Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia, a nonprofit group dedicated to fighting housing discrimination.
“If this said black real estate network, or white real estate network — looking for a white real estate agent to buy or sell a home? — how would that sound?” Chamberlin said. She added that eventually the courts will weigh in. “Some day one of these things is going to be litigated all the way to the Supreme Court — because there is so much of it.”

What do you think? Have you seen this type of religion-centered pitch among lawyers?

CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer

In a story in today’s Reading (Pa.) Eagle, Edward V. Giannasca II says he will appeal his $33 million loss to former Raven Michael McCrary — and denied he has any intention of fleeing the country with his three children, as alleged by his ex-wife.

“What is she talking about fleeing? I’m right here,” Giannasca told the paper from his office in Reading, where he’s seeking approval for a $2.8 billion mixed-use project on 80 acres along the Schuylkill River.

Giannasca said he “merely got passports for all the children at the same time because one son needed one,” the Eagle reports.

He will have a chance to explain that to visiting Judge Paul E. Alpert, who ordered him to appear in Baltimore City Circuit Court on Monday, June 30, under threat of a body attachment.

But, according to the Eagle, he has other plans.

“Giannasca said he won’t be there because he and his family will be on a weeklong vacation in Hilton Head, S.C.,” the story said.

The Eagle also says Giannasca stayed away from this week’s legal proceedings in Baltimore, despite a court order and his own promise to appear, on advice of counsel.

BARBARA GRZINCIC, Managing Editor/Law

Wednesday marked my first time aboard a helicopter. That’s right, I’ve never been airlifted from a war zone, seen the rocks of the Grand Canyon up close, or gone down with a Black Hawk in the wilds of Somalia. And this occasion wasn’t incredibly glamorous either. We rose up, twice circled the proposed site of an office park redevelopment in Halethorpe, saw it from both sides, then touched down. It was a surprisingly smooth ride.

The occasion for my helicopter debut was some reporting I did on Hollins End Corporate Park, a warehouse redevelopment project in Baltimore County being carried out by Lutherville’s Preston Partners. Showing a development site to Realtors, businesspeople and members of media is an uncommon treat at ground-breaking ceremonies, but in the case of Hollins End, it was especially interesting because it put the project in the context of its location.

The developers are building their 1.3 million square feet of office flex and warehouse space on 51 acres between a number of major roadways — I-95, I-695, I-895 — that connect the Baltimore and Washington metro areas. It really took a trip up high to illustrate this context. We saw cars running along I-895, up to the Baltimore beltway, and beyond, in the distance, the skyline of Baltimore rose from the haze.

A media spokesperson for Baltimore County, who was sitting near me in the cramped, four-person cabin of the Bell 407, said, “Google Earth just doesn’t capture this!” I couldn’t agree more. It’s easy to see why so many action film directors choose to shoot from the open doors of a chopper. The sweeping, expansive view you get is just amazing.

Plus you get to wear some totally cool-looking headgear.

ROBBIE WHELAN, Business Writer

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The American Institute of Architects has released a list of America’s favorite buildings, which according to the methodology described on the project’s Web site, is actually more like, “the American Institute of Architects’ favorite buildings, plus a little bit of public input on the matter.”

So basically, it’s not the American people who have spoken, but card-carrying AIA-member architects who have weighed in, which means, potentially, that any number of pro architects out there might have voted for one of their own projects.

It’s also a reason why we shouldn’t feel so miffed that Maryland is only represented once – at No. 122 – with Baltimore’s Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

We came in just behind the Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa in Phoenix, 25 spots behind the Federal Building in Islip, N.Y., and way shy of the New York Times’ new headquarters in New York, which, to my knowledge, has been covered by scaffolding since it opened in 2006. That’s right, our beloved ballpark is less attractive than an oblong skyscraper near Time Square that no one has yet seen in its entirety. Hmmmm….

Take a look – you can vote for your own favorites on the website.

ROBBIE WHELAN, Business Writer

You may have seen one of the ads recently put forth as part of a $40 million ad campaign by the National Association of Realtors. The spots attempt to sell you on the long-term benefits of being a homeowner (you know, maintenance, repairs, property taxes…).

But Advertising Age says the ads may be misleading:

On the [related Web] site, an “equity estimator calculator” suggests a $20,000 home down payment turns into $124,600 in 10 years for a 623 percent return. The Web site includes the same claims as the two spots and adds a few more noting, for example, that that prices have risen an average of 6 percent every year. Like each of the spots, the site does come with a small warning — that local market conditions can vary and consumers should seek counsel from a local real-estate agent.

However, in the light of the current market the “housing-market facts” could also be read as a historical look at an overheated market rather than a good predictor of what’s to come.

Here’s descriptions of the two ads: Building Wealth and Home Values.

What do you think? Is becoming a homeowner still a surefire investment?

JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor

Image courtesy of National Association of Realtors