Crises in Mortgage Insurance and in Title Insurance are addressed in recent posts on Insurance Claims and Issues Web Log. See in particular Categories for those issues as well as the Category of Foreclosure.
"Rocket dockets" or fast tracks for previously uncontested Foreclosure Lawsuits are not limited to the Florida Courts in Jacksonville. Recent newspaper reports may lead you to the wrong conclusion about that. Rocket dockets exist Statewide throughout Florida's Courts in obedience to an Order issued by the Florida Supreme Court.
Now, even more recent newspaper reports tentatively raise questions about whether it is necessary to ramrod Foreclosure Lawsuits through the Florida Courts, and who benefits from the rocket docket established for them.
In the Ninth Circuit of Florida, which includes Orlando, these tentative questions have taken shape in three principal ways, as reported by Anthony Colarossi, "Questions Could Slow Foreclosures/9th Circuit Tries to Manage Backlog" p. A1, col. 1 (Orlando Sentinel, Monday, November 15, 2010).
1. The Florida Attorney General's Office (Department of Legal Affairs) is investigating some Law Firms which represent Lenders, for Possible Fraud. Id.
That the Florida Attorney General, the departing William McCollum, has taken any action is itself news. That the Attorney General is investigating Lender Lawyers for possible Fraud is astounding. This alone suggests that perhaps rocket dockets are not appropriate for Florida's Courts, in at least some cases if not inappropriate in all cases.
2. Signing foreclosure documents "without careful review." Id.
"What we have here is failure to communicate." What the warden in the movie, "Cool Hand Luke," actually said after the chain-gang guard shot Luke to death.
This reference is to the apparent procedure of routine False Swearing to personal knowledge in Affidavits in order to obtain Summary Judgments of Foreclosure.
Turning in documents "without careful review" is when your kid turns in her homework without checking it.
Executing an Affidavit without personal knowledge when you affirm or swear that you have personal knowledge of the Testimony in your Affidavit, is Fraud and False Swearing.
3. Question: Does the Statewide Florida "Rocket Docket" Deny Due Process in Foreclosure Lawsuits? Id.
The question practically suggests the answer. The same newspaper report reveals that "73 percent of the time" the Court grants Summary Judgment for Plaintiff Lenders in apparently all Foreclosure Lawsuits in Florida. Id.
Lawyers, in what other class of cases have you heard of Judges granting Summary Judgments 73 percent of the time, to anyone?
Experienced Florida Lawyers know very well that it is unheard of. Florida Trial Judges, like Trial Judges in most jurisdictions, are told by Appellate Courts all the time not to enter Summary Judgments but instead to let the case go to Trial where ordinarily a Jury awaits to sort things out. Something about a Constitutional Right to Due Process.
For Trial Judges to enter Summary Judgments 73 percent of the time may seem to some to be a nightmare of judicial activism.
And so, we return to the questions we had when we began: Why is it necessary to ramrod Foreclosure Lawsuits through the Florida Courts? If there is to be a rocket docket for Foreclosure Lawsuits, who benefits?
Please Read The Disclaimer.
Comments