The press continues to shine the light of common sense on the absurdity that is playing out in our foreclosure courtrooms. How can our judges continue to grant foreclosure when the firms that make up a huge percentage of those cases are being investigated by the Florida Attorney General for serious violations? This is not just a question being asked by advocates like me, there are now three members of the United States Congress that are asking this question.
The most interesting thing about this article from my perspective is the fact that the Sixth Judicial Circuit is in fact tracking the number of cases that it will not grant Summary Judgment for. That’s an excellent start and confirms my belief that the Sixth Circuit is working to ensure that there is some fairness and equity in this process. We cannot allow $9.6 million dollars in taxpayer money to be used exclusively as a means to speed up the foreclosure process for the mills. This money can and should properly be used to dismiss cases where long standing rules of the court have not been followed. The problem is the 227 cases mentioned in the article were undoubtedly not dismissed, but will linger around only to pop up again sometime in the future.
Our courts have lost their moral authority to rule until some modicum of balance and fairness is restored. Courts across the state should be prepared to report just how many cases were actually dismissed as part of the absurd effort to clear the 62% backlog unless these courts are prepared to take the far more responsible route, respond to the calls of the United States Congress and declare a moratorium to foreclosures.
