Good news for lenders looking to overcome questions about the veracity of their documents supporting foreclosure suits: A ruling from the Fourth District Court of Appeal clarifies that a witness authenticating business records doesn't have to have prepared those documents in order to survive defense efforts to characterize the evidence as inadmissible hearsay.

That decision played in JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A.'s favor when the appellate panel found the trial judge should not have excluded some of the bank's evidence after its witness met the standard of being “well enough acquainted with the activity to provide testimony.”

To survive hearsay objections under Florida law, successor lenders or servicers must prove they independently verified information in their predecessors' files during the boarding process, when they transfer account data from one company's management system to another after trading loan portfolios. That independent fact-checking helps qualify their files as business records and not hearsay when they face off with borrowers during foreclosure litigation.