Florida's courts are out $6 million after state lawmakers chose not to extend a one-time stipend aimed at reducing a foreclosure backlog.
The reduction means less manpower to process foreclosure cases and is already having repercussions in Palm Beach County where Circuit Judge John Hoy canceled a July foreclosure hearing citing fiscal constraints.
"Because of the lack of funding by the Florida Legislature, judges are unavailable to preside over foreclosure trials beginning July 1, 2011," Hoy wrote in a May 11 order.
Court budgets operate on a fiscal year that runs July 1 through June 30.
Last year, Palm Beach County received $640,000 out of the statewide stipend to add senior judges, case managers and assistants to do foreclosure work.
The additional help allowed the courts to process 16,972 Palm Beach County cases between June 2010 and February of this year, reducing a backlog of 46,438 cases to 29,466.
Statewide, the 462,339-case backlog in June 2010 was reduced by 139,615 cases.
Still, that leaves more than 322,700 cases clogging the system.
Palm Beach County Chief Judge Peter Blanc said some cases are being temporarily canceled while Hoy, who will be the only judge dedicated full-time to foreclosures after June 30, sees how he will keep up with the increase in work.
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