The foreclosure fraud fiasco continues unabated. In fact, the fraud continues quite nicely, thank you. No one cares anymore about all the fraud, the crimes, the lies.
But a much bigger and far more disturbing aspect of this whole fiasco is the fact that our state’s court system has turned it’s back on it’s most important Constitutional Requirement…
That it protect the integrity of the court system and defend The Constitution and the rights of citizens.
What is occurring in the state is a dramatic shift in court policy, procedure and outcomes. The Legislature has spoken, they have demanded that foreclosures move forward and our state’s courts are dutifully dancing to the tune called by the legislative branch.
What is this occurred in other aspects of our nation’s judicial process? What if the legislatures, flush with payouts and bribes from private prison corporations demanded new sentences and harsher prison sentences for criminals….so they could fill up prisons. (Oops, bad example…we’ve already got that….but you get the point.
This is of course, all madness. All parties involved admit just how blatant this is:
” There is a consensus across the state that the locked up backlog [of foreclosure cases] is contributing to Florida’s economic difficulties, and the only way out of this is through it,” said Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey, administrative judge for the civil circuit division. ” We’ve been charged by the Supreme Court with this funding to move these cases.”
But what about the larger and far more important questions about due process and protecting the integrity of the legal process? Our courts, thrown all this to the side so that our courts can help contribute to Florida’s economic difficulties. And is there not an outright admission that our courts have turned their backs on fraud, on crimes, on due process in order to accomplish the more important goal of our judicial branch….solving Florida’s economic difficulties?
But a most interesting thing will begin to occur in the months that will follow after this massive docket clearing exercise. What exactly will the impact be of tens of thousands of foreclosed properties hitting the market? What will the general public’s perception of the court system be when they realize the whole branch has turned its bank on The People and is instead rewarding the bad, bad banks? And what will The People think of The Courts once the inevitable horror stories of these Rocket Dockets begin trickling out? The elderly couple who have been making modification payments but got foreclosed on anyway? What about all the Final Judgments that will be entered based on grossly irregular documents. Oh, who cares….right? What difference does it make…after all, we’ve got an economic recovery to get along to….
From The Miami Herald:
Miami-Dade Circuit Court “” choked with foreclosure cases, many dating to 2009 “” has gotten tough on pushing cases through the system.
Five months into a state-funded project, Florida’s busiest circuit court is conducting hundreds of foreclosure trials a week.
With $626,000 in special funds for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2013, the court has added two senior judge slots and a staff of case managers to help clear a backlog of some 53,668 foreclosure cases.
” It’s a rocket docket,” said Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jon Gordon, a senior judge who is churning through about 50 trials a day.
Regular civil division judges also handle foreclosure proceedings, typically the more complicated ones, along with other cases.
