Foreclosure Now Top Legal Woe

Call it a sign of the times. The number of people seeking cheap legal advice to save their homes is on the rise.

In 2009, real estate-related issues including foreclosures and landlord and tenant disputes topped the list of requests at Pre-Paid Legal Services. Some 358,000 consumers sought answers to their real estate questions from the organization, which provides affordable legal benefits through a network of independent firms in the U.S. and Canada. This is the first year it has conducted the survey. All told, the organization fielded some 2.3 million requests for legal help.

"The number of people seeking foreclosure help is probably ten times what it was two or three years ago," Charles E. Davis, managing partner of Mesa, Ariz.-based Davis Miles, a member of Pre-Paid Legal, told HousingWatch.