Boring life of a Real Estate Attorney

Life of a real estate attorney can be quite boring. Doing a lot of routine paperwork attending boring home closings. Crossing every T and dotting every I. Anybody who purchased or sold a house can imagine how many document they had to sign in a real estate closing. With recent wave of frauds and robosigning, the amount of paperwork is now out of control.

  To break for this boring routine, and generate new sources of revenue, the top rela estate attorneys in Lexington, KY jumped in the bandwagon. They became the specialized collectors of property tax liens. Paperwork is minimal and mostly prepared by paralegals.

  Markets are not free since the payor of the attorney fees is not a homeowner but a rather captive audience. They never had the chance to shop around to get better fees. They either pay of the collectors will foreclose on their house.

  Some of these attorneys are very well connected and known. For example, Virginia Lawson actually represented real estate agents and educator in kentucky board of Realtors. She now has an eye on your house.

 Billy Sherrow is another vulture in the making. One day Justice will be served and these attorneys will lose their license for good.

Justice delayed. Justice denied.

Where Goverment stands in property tax lien racket?

Mr. Brad Cowgill
Ex- State Budget Director

There had been some recent laws passed to regulate the property tax lien investors. These laws are very encouraging and represent steps taken towards the right direction. But a very interesting thing happen. Some politicians realize the potential profits in this business and wanted a piece of it.

No wonder the biggest (actually # 1) lobbying company in Kentucky is Tax Ease Liens and his owner Phil Migicovsky. Profits are surreal in this business. Who else can steal a $100,000 property with a $150 tax lien.

So old and new politicians are in this business. One prominent member of this racket is Mr. Brad Cowgill who was the ex-state budget director. He actually facilated the passage of some of the laws regulating this business.



 Mr Brad Cowgill's company Kentucky Tax liens wi one of the major players in this racket. He is not the only one in this business. Sannie Overly, a Kentucky representative is also in this business. Her law firm, Overly & Johnson, LLC , is knwon to be active as plantiff's attorney in Boyd county.



State Representative Sannie Overly


 Mrs. Sannie Overly is a local politican and a one of the lawyers in our radar screen for abuseing property tax lien collections. We have a special blog article featuring a case where she was the attorney. Victim for this case was a eldery nursing home resident, who died recently. We want Sannie Overly to resign sicne as a local politician she has significant conflict of interest issues. Her law firm represents Southern Tax Services and I will hopefully find out who owns that company.





Sannie Overly how are you suppose to represent Kentuckians while you are ripping them off at the same time.

How Tax Lien Investors get away with their illegal fees?

When a property tax is not paid by the property owner, a property tax lien is automatically placed by the local authorities. This lien gives the owner a top priority over the underlying property. The loophole is this, when you try to pay a delinquent tax bill, you can not pay it to the government. You need to find the "private tax lien investor" and mainly their attorneys. If you are in Lexington, KY there are couple big playes in this. You either contact Sherrow & Sutherland in Southland drive or Virginia Lawson's office in Clays Mill Road. You pay their exorbiant fees or settle for a payment plan if you are lucky.

  I am warning you in advance, be ready to shell out thousands of dollars for your $140 delinquent tax bill. once you pay in full, these attorneys will remove the lien for you. However nobody will know how much you paid for this privilage. The attorney fees are for your eyes only and it never appears in public domain.

The purpose of this blog is to publicize these fees and expose these scumbag attorneys that they cannot get away with what they do. Help us with our efforts, please send me your documents. I will be more than happy to post them on this blog and keep your identity confidential at the same time.

Let's stop these attorneys to make fortunes at the misery of Kentuckians.

Action needed from Kentucky Bar Association: Disbar the Bad players

Uniting the victims of property tax liens is essential. By uniting among us and fighting this abusive practice, we can create a change. Unfortunately the involved attorneys "consistently" and "willingly"  violating the Kentucky state laws stated in KRS 134.452 (Kentucky Revised Statues) to enrich themselves and their investor clients. Actions of these attorneys are menace to our society. I suggest the victims to take collective action and request the ethical committe of Kentucky Bar Association to disbar the following attorneys. Please join us and make an example that nobody is above the law.

Attorney's that should be reported to Ethical Committe of Kentucky Bar Association

Virgina Lawson

Billy Sherrow

Ryan Schwartz

Sample Tax Lien Collection Fee Schedule: Sherrow & Sutherland Associates

Here is the fee schedule Sherrow and Sutherland uses in their collection efforts. Please read the last sentence. Always read the fine print.

Property Tax Lien Profile: Jeffersontown , KY

Property Location: Jeffersontown, Kentucky

Tax Lien Purchase:   Tax Ease Lien

Tax Lien Investors' Attorney:   Sherrow & Sutherland and Associates PSC.

Billy Sherrow, Charles Sutherland, Ryan Schwartz, Stephen Marshall

Tax Lien Year: 2009

Tax Lien Face Value:      $342.29
Documentation Fees:       $100

Interest Charges:             $44.46

Attorney Fees:                  $318  (This number grew to more than couple thousands)

Collection Phase:             Litigation

Laws Broken:                   Seperate fees were charged for same property and several other properties owned by the same owner. KRS. prevents multiple charges fro the same property and/or property owner. fee caps are for all properties not for each case. Tax Ease lien is now trying to steal a property for nothing by litigation tiny defaulted tax liens.

Tax Lien Profiles: Harrodsburg, KENTUCKY

Property Location: Harrodsbrug, Kentucky

Tax Lien Purchase:   Janus Fund

Tax Lien Investors' Attorney:   

Tax Lien Year:

Tax Lien Face Value:

Documentation Fees:

Interest Charges:

Attorney Fees:

Collection Phase:

Laws Broken: