Seriously. This country needs more judges with a bit more "pro-little people" common sense. The term "activist judge" was pushed by the extreme right as a pejorative to describe judges who wouldn't "play" by their social, cultural or political rules. So, for example, a judge who would rule against a bank in a foreclosure case, would be considered "an activist", especially if the judge was trying to aver the catastrophe of putting families in the street. 

Well, welcome the new wave of foreclosure and bankruptcy judicial activists, judges who are  going to great lengths to verify the claims being put forth by banks during foreclosure proceedings. 

In June, the judge dismissed with prejudice two cases filed by a unit of Wells Fargo & Co. By doing online public-records research himself, the judge found that Wells Fargo didn't own the two loans, and his dismissals mean that even if Wells Fargo eventually obtained legal ownership, it could take up to another year to obtain foreclosure.

Another dismissal involved a foreclosure filed by a U.S. unit of HSBC Holdings PLC. Included in Justice Schack's concerns was that the filed documents list the address for HSBC and a loan payment collector as being the same suite in a West Palm Beach, Fla., building, and that in prior foreclosure filings, other financial entities also claimed to be located in the same suite.

"The Court ponders if Suite 100 is the size of Madison Square Garden to house all of these financial behemoths or if there is a more nefarious reason for this corporate togetherness," he wrote, adding that HSBC would have to write an affidavit explaining the popularity of suite 100.

To those who may get a knee-jerk reaction out of "activist judge" should take a moment to ponder the Wall Street Journal article after reading it. Why? The judges are doing what the banks made all but impossible for borrowers to do for themselves: read the fine print. 

With the advent of "NINA" loans, approved on-the-spot on "no income, no assets", many borrowers basically had no idea what they were getting into. And even to this day, many people don't find the extent of their financial ruin until they hit the courts with their foreclosure notices.

So it's refreshing to hear that judges are going back to doing what many used to do before the  days of rubber stamp gaveling: to use their resources to find the truth of the claims presented to them and their courts.