Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Untangling the foreclosure mystery--EXAMINING THE CASE OF ONE LOCAL “DEADBEAT”

The last few weeks, in this newspaper, I have made an attempt to expose what is truly going on in the foreclosure process, and how it ties back to a myriad of other systematic issues affecting our daily lives. Last week, we touched on the fact that the court system is incentivized directly by the Banks that have caused this crisis.


But I would be remiss if I did not mention the Foreclosure and Economic Recovery Plan, aka the “Rocket Docket.” In FY 10 -11, our legislature, (clearly influenced by the Banking lobby) devised the Rocket Docket to appoint retired Judges to reduce the backlog (grease the skids) of foreclosure cases by 62 percent during the fiscal year.

You might note that appointed retired Judges do not face the scrutiny of elections.



Here in the Keys, that duty has been assigned to Judge Sandra Taylor. Taylor has made an effort to proactively dismiss cases for lack of prosecution, but according to a report by the Office of State Courts Administrator, she only disposed of 23 cases in the first three months by dismissing them, while granting 100 Summary Judgements of Foreclosures. That is a four to one ratio in favor of the banks.

Again, allow me to remind you that defendants are not challenging most of these cases, and if a decent review of each case is not conducted, you may end up with a watershed of adverse consequences down the road, as per my commentary from last week. Attention to the documents in each case is essential to preserve the integrity of our title histories, and ultimately our property values, regardless of whether or not a defendant is present.

But what happens when a case with questionable docs is contested? If, as I suggest, the documents are so egregious, surely a defendant would prevail and the Judge would recognize fraud, right? Well, one would hope. But let’s examine one such case, and you be the Judge. Case No. 2009- CA-471-K.

A must read. Read all the way to the end. Click here.

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