UMass Law UMass Law: McDonald Quoted in MassLive Article on Post-Foreclosure Evictions

Professor Geoff McDonald was interviewed by MassLive on post-foreclosure evictions.

MassLive interviewed UMass Law Professor Geoff McDonald to give his expert take on a story following post-foreclosure evictions. The article follows Jocephus Grant, a man who had his house foreclosed on after a medical accident happened to him while on the job. After being left physically unable to work and the bills began to pile up, an investor bought Grant’s home, resulting in Grant becoming a tenant in his own home.

After losing a trial two years ago, Grant is currently appealing the court’s foreclosure decision. Massachusetts is a jurisdiction that authorizes non-judicial foreclosure, which means lenders foreclose on property without needing a court order first. “This makes it quicker and easier for banks to foreclose on homeowners,” said Professor McDonald in the interview. Now in the appeal process, Grant is maintaining that the foreclosure was illegal because there was no in-person notice of foreclosure given by his mortgage company. In response, Professor McDonald told MassLive, while it is considered illegal for a mortgage lender to not set up an in-person meeting, “it is not necessarily a problem that would end a foreclosure case.” The article identified a greater issue, citing a 2008 Boston University study in four U.S. states finding that about half of all foreclosures were caused in part by a medical problem. This study’s findings illustrate the nation-wide problem of home foreclosures due to medical care debt. 

Before coming to UMass Law, Professor McDonald practiced law in New York City for fifteen years, including both private practice and public interest work. He represented creditors, debtors, trustees and other significant parties in interest in some of the largest, most prominent and complex Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases in this country. In the five years immediately prior to joining the UMass Law faculty, he worked as a public interest attorney in the South Bronx, where his practice was focused on preventing homelessness by providing free legal services to people facing eviction or foreclosure.

In his research, McDonald focuses on technical bankruptcy questions as well as the moral basis of bankruptcy, including the interrelated issues of debt, justice, and forgiveness, with particular emphasis on the constitutional and jurisprudential dimensions. His research interests also include constitutional law, especially constitutional rights, jurisprudence, ethical theory, and law/religion.

Professor McDonald received his B.A. in Philosophy from Wesleyan University, his M.A.R. in Philosophy of Religion from Yale University, where he also studied jurisprudence and legal philosophy at Yale Law School, his Ph.D. in Religion (Ethics & Society) and J.D. from Emory University, and his LL.M. in Bankruptcy from St. John’s University School of Law. Professor McDonald teaches in the areas of contracts, commercial law and bankruptcy as well as jurisprudence and ethical theory.