Hot on the heels of the Florida Legislature passing foreclosure “reform” last week, it’s high time that people…anyone…takes a look at what’s currently happening with foreclosures in this state.
First, in first quarter 2013, millions of taxpayer dollars have been spent to help the courts
“CLEAR THE FORECLOSURE BACKLOG!”
Whether this means “grant foreclosure judgments at all costs” or “dismiss foreclosure cases that are filled with fraud and other irregularities” is very much an open question at this point in time.
What is certain, based on data supplied by the courts, is that very few homes are going to sale…even more disturbing…very, very few are actually going to third party bidders. The vast majority of the properties…the end product of millions of taxpayer dollars to fund this system, is to return foreclosed properties back to the government sponsored enterprises that caused all this mess in the first place.
No one wants to consider the implications of this. Not state legislators, not federal lawmakers, not federal officials…and regrettably, not the locally elected circuit court judges who are ultimately responsible for entering foreclosure judgments….at least not all of them. But many good judges are starting to ask the kind of real questions that lie at the heart of this mess.
From time to time, I still hear a judge say, simplistically, “but you haven’t paid your mortgage…have you?” as if that was all there was to the issue…I heard such an interrogation last week as a matter of fact. But more and more judges are intrigued by the far more significant questions….
What exactly is the point of all this foreclosing?
and
Who exactly are we serving with all this foreclosing?
The Florida Legislature is of course completely out of touch by pursuing a strategy that, “we’ve got to get through this foreclosure crisis…at all costs…” even when that means ignoring the long-term damage to our state’s judicial branch….specifically by granting the title insurance industry the so called, “finality of foreclosure” provision. This provision removes the critical power a judge has to undo mistakes he or she might make…
Our state’s courts cannot stand on the sidelines and watch the legislative branch rip away from them powers that are a foundation of the entire judicial process….can they? And if the judicial branch does in fact stand aside and let this happen in the context of foreclosure…what’s next? What next will the legislative branch shove down their black-robbed gullets? Will the judicial branch wake up and put forth a whimper of protest?
And if the courts will not step up and sound the warning of protest, than this job will fall on the shoulders of those few private warriors who are willing to stand up and fight for our courts, to fight for those larger and far more important principals.
There are attorneys across this state who are willing to make that fight….to stand up for our courts and for interests that are bigger than ourselves…..
Honor roll to follow….
