The mortgage crisis during the Great Recession offers lessons for lenders, as well as  commercial and residential landlords and tenants, to weather our current pandemic-related economic crisis.

Richard Lawson, a partner at Gardner Brewer Martinez-Monfort in Tampa, said consumer protection issues are the "ultimate lagging indicator." It is a concept Lawson learned when he served as the director of the consumer protection division for the office of former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi at the height of the state's post-crisis mortgage market investigations.

Although the previous economic collapse occurred in 2008, Lawson observed that it was not until 2011 that the problem with foreclosures erupted. The aftermath of the Great Recession has primed officials to be on the lookout for fair lending issues and other potential abuses as borrower assistance requests start to pile up.