At the May meeting of the Palm Beach County Bar Association Subcommittee on Foreclosures,
I received a huge shock. The judges have decided that the backlog of foreclosure cases has become so oppressive that
from now on more circuit civil court judges will hear these cases. Judge Cook, the main foreclosure judge, said that
his backlog of 40,000 cases would grow to 60,000 in the next 18 months, unless some drastic action was taken. At the
May meeting, the judges announced that action. They taught judges who do not hear foreclosure cases regularly to handle
them on May 7th. The goal was to teach each judge how to dispose of 20 cases (read "houses") an hour starting
in June. In addition, they plan to hire senior judges -- retired judges who remain active -- to come in a couple of days a
week to decide additional cases.
The judges have told the
firms that handle foreclosures for the banks that they may now schedule as many summary judgment hearings as they want. (The
summary judgment hearing is the hearing at which the judge determines that the house should be sold and sets a sale date.)
As soon as the banks' lawyers heard this, they filed thousands of requests for summary judgment hearings. The goal is
to make foreclosures go faster than ever. The plan will lead to the foreclosure auctions of hundreds of houses. The judges
in Palm Beach have decided that "justice delayed is justice denied," and "justice" in this circumstance
means letting the banks put families who can't pay their mortgages out of their houses within months.
This will be the summer of tears for tens of thousands of people in Palm Beach County who will
be forced out of their homes.
I feel so sorry for the people
who did not hire an attorney or who trusted "loan modification" companies that took their money and did nothing.
This new system in Palm Beach is going to chew them up. I expect to see homelessness spike as the tsunami of foreclosure sales
start in July and August. I also expect to see more people in shelters, more kids in foster care, and more crime as
desperate people do desperate things to survive. This decision to push forward foreclosures en masse is going to tear
at the fabric of our community.
Now more than ever,
homeowners facing foreclosure must know their legal rights!
