As we speak, Florida courts are engaged in a massive and unprecedented docket clearing exercise. The legislature and Supreme Court have called the tune and judges all across this state are dancing. And so, in makeshift courtrooms from Pensacola to Key West and everywhere in between, Senior Judges are executing tens of thousands of foreclosure judgements. Boom….Boom….Boom. One home after another gone.
As I sat in a courtroom yesterday with 119 trials scheduled, there was a constant parade of bank attorneys begging for reprieve, begging to change the Plaintiff name, begging to make a few changes here and there to their pleadings. Fortunately, this judge ran a tight ship….NO CHANGES. You’re ready or you’re dismissed he bellowed. But things are not quite so tight in other courtrooms. In the rush to thin the herd, judges are ignoring substantive law, ignoring evidence, ignoring procedure. No original note filed? No problem. No evidence of default? No problem. No record of a mortgage? No problem.
In many ways it’s foreclosure on the honor system….judges relying upon the representations of banks that have proven to be grossly untrustworthy. And that of course is a recipe for disasters. Many of them.
You see, in an among all these foreclosure cases you we all know there’s a disturbing number of mistakes that are being made…mistakes that the banks try to correct after the fact.
This is part of the reason behind one of the most disturbing statistics provided by the state…..a staggering 83.6% of foreclosure cases were reopened in Fiscal Year 2011-2012. That’s right….according to the state’s own numbers 156,069 cases were re-opened….and there were only 186,651 new cases filed.
Now, here’s where things get really, really ugly. Now that Florida’s much beloved governor has signed into law the new Finality of Foreclosure Law, judges will no longer be able to re-open cases to fix mistakes or errors in the case. Here’s the relevant section:
702.036 Finality of mortgage foreclosure judgment.””
(1)(a) In any action or proceeding in which a party seeks to set aside, invalidate, or challenge the validity of a final judgment of foreclosure of a mortgage or to establish or reestablish a lien or encumbrance on the property in abrogation of the final judgment of foreclosure of a mortgage, the court shall treat such request solely as a claim for monetary damages and may not grant relief that adversely affects the quality or character of the title to the property.
In practical terms this is going to have devastating consequences…..homes sold in foreclosure accidentally will not be returned to their rightful owners. All because the Florida Legislature is in the hands of the banks and title insurance companies.
