The Little Judge

Michael Powell: The judge waves you into his chambers in the State Supreme Court building in Brooklyn, past the caveat taped to his wall — "Be sure brain in gear before engaging mouth" — and into his inner office, where foreclosure motions are piled high enough to form a minor Alpine chain.



Every week, the nation's mightiest banks come to his court seeking to take the homes of New Yorkers who cannot pay their mortgages. And nearly as often, the judge says, they file foreclosure papers speckled with errors.



He plucks out one motion and leafs through: a Deutsche Bank representative signed an affidavit claiming to be the vice president of two different banks. His office was in Kansas…