PUNTA GORDA, Fla. - Picketers from across Florida gathered on the steps of the Charlotte County Justice Center Wednesday morning to have their voices heard.
"There's a lot of folks in foreclosure that need some relief," said Bradley Burdette, who organized the "Rally Against the Banks" protest.
One of those voices belonged to Ronald Gillis, who has been fighting to keep his house since 2008, when Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas filed to foreclose on his Charlotte County home.
"If an entity suing me had the right to take my house, they should," Gillis said. "I have no problem with that."
Gillis said Deutsche Bank had no such right.
"It was a bank I'd never heard of before, and had no contact with and never did," he said.
While it is common and legal for mortgages to change hands between lenders before, and during the foreclosure process, Gillis and his fellow picketers say it's not fair. They are questioning the authenticity of the bank's documents in Gillis' case.
Wachovia was Gillis' original lender, when he bought his home in 2006. That bank dissolved during the recession in 2008, when it was bought out by Wells Fargo.
While Gillis' case has been winding its way through the circuit court for more than six years, he filed to have th case moved to federal court earlier this week.