Boston Legal's Clarence, played by Gary Anthony Williams, the 41-year old actor from Atlanta, nearly lost his home to bank foreclosure on December 18's "Green Christmas" episode. He's embarrassed and seems to feel his financial snafu will affect his position–and respect–at the law firm where he works.

Legal whiz-kid Alan Shore, played by James Spader, immediately upon hearing Clarence has missed only two payments, promises him he will not lose his home.

Clarence explained he had a subprime mortgage and was doing fine until his payment jumped a third. By the time of his mortifying confession to his boss, expressed in the past tense, "I lost my house," his adjustible rate mortgage had "adjusted" (reset) to 12%.

As I've said before, "It isn’t borrowing money itself that is the killer. It’s the terms of the loan, terms few people understand."

Alan went with Clarence to the bank, where they were told Clarence agreed to a 2% "teaser rate," also called a starter rate. Alan asked Clarence whether he had understood the terms of the loan. "No, not really," was Clarence's–and evidently a million other people's, reply.

Responding to accusations of fraud and deliberate intent to mislead, as hundreds of bankers, brokers, Realtors and others have done, the loan officer and bank manager claimed innocence in helping Clarence do something he wanted to do: namely, "get into a house he couldn't afford."

Bravo! If I said I wished I could jump off a bridge, would you push me? If you've read The Great Mortgage Revolt blog regularly, you would know I have one of the loudest voices advocating consumer responsibility. But this lender's response to impending foreclosure is exactly the reason some are saying we need legislation to toughen lending practices, requiring lenders to be sure borrowers can repay the loan. That seems completely unenforceable to me, and just the bed crooks need to dream up new ways to circumvent reason and consumer protections.

The happy ending came when Shore strong-armed the lender into adjusting Clarence's subprime ARM into a fixed rate 30-year loan at 8%. Shore reminded the lender what good citizens everywhere strapped with mortgage payments they can't make should remember: banks don't want your real estate. If they foreclose on you, they have a house but no income. They will try to sell the real estate for the balance still owed on it, an expensive and often losing undertaking.

Special note: If you happen to be worried about losing your own home, I have a friend who's an expert in renegotiating your deal with your banker, selling your house in 9 days if you have to get out of it to avoid wrecking your credit through foreclosure, and other debt-related matters. I don't like making pitches on my blog, but if I ask you to email me for info, like I was going to do, I'll be inundated with requests for a website. Here it is: Mortgage Relief Formula. Richard will let you review his info for free to see whether it's the kind of help you need. You can't beat that!