Foreclosure Ramblings – Winning, Evictions, The Crisis is Over

I “won” a foreclosure case yesterday.  By winning I mean the 2010 Foreclosure case was dismissed, and the bank cannot amend.  I believe the bank will refile, then the process will begin again.  A non-lawyer homeowner defendant in yesterday’s court room thought my win meant my client gets to keep the property without the mortgage.  No, it does not work that way.  It’s unfortunate when people accept the legal advice and opinions they get from their friends, neighbors, and the internet.  It can really hurt them. 

I had a woman call last week about a foreclosure.  She said she made an appointment with me months before, but did not come.  Her property was sold the day before, can I help her?  Highly unlikely.  The deeper you dig yourself into the hole the harder it is to get you out.

Someone tells me foreclosures should be like evictions, fast.   I promise you that will not happen in Florida in the foreseeable future. 

When I began practicing law in 1991 foreclosures were rare.  If someone found themselves in foreclosure they were usually embarrassed, and the foreclosure was quick and smooth.  Fast forward to 2009 when homeowners found they could no longer make their mortgage payments because they lost their income, and there were millions of them, hundreds of thousands in Florida.  At the same time people lost their jobs they found their home was suddenly worth significantly less than their mortgage balance.  There is no easy solution to this situation. 

I was told yesterday all the foreclosure defense lawyer does is delay.  You can view it that way but the delay is caused by forcing the bank to prove its case, and sometimes they can’t, as happened yesterday. 

As I waited for my case to be heard I was seated next to an attorney who was unfamiliar with Broward foreclosure procedure.  We were there early.  The judge took the bench early, which is great.  There were 40-50 attorneys or litigants in the court room, but only two teams, which means lawyers on both sides ready to argue.  The Judge heard both cases, then we all just sat there.  The lawyer next to me asked why cases were not being called.  Because the docket is all morning, and it’s early, if the Judge calls a case and only one lawyer is present and she goes ahead and decides to hear the case, then the other lawyer shows up 30 minutes later and says that’s not fair, I didn’t get to be heard, it’s a re-do.  The Judge got up and left the bench.  The lawyer next to me was aghast.  Why shouldn’t she leave the bench and take a break?  Without teams she has no cases to hear.  The lawyer wanted to know where all the bank lawyers were.  I explained cases were being heard in four courtrooms concurrently, all four courtrooms have a morning and afternoon docket, the bank’s lawyers are moving between the courtrooms.  She said she thought the foreclosure crisis was over.  I said believe that when they go down to 3 courtrooms, then 2, then 1.  Then they wipe out the foreclosure division altogether because we did not used to have a dedicated foreclosure division.