F'closure Rocket Docket Alive & Well In Palm Beach County; Local Chief Tells Financially Strapped Homeowner Hit w/ Rubber-Stamped Ruling To Appeal

In West Palm Beach, Florida, The Palm Beach Post reports:

• Last month, Palm Beach County Senior Judge Roger Colton opened his afternoon foreclosure session by telling homeowners that he'd heard all their stories before, and he would give them a maximum of five months before letting lenders take their homes.

***

• In the first case, Judge Colton signed a final summary judgment giving Everhome Mortgage Co. the right to foreclose on a Lake Worth couple's home despite their attorney's objections that Everhome had failed to prove that it owns the note. Foreclosure defense lawyers cite the case as an egregious example of Florida's so-called "rocket docket," the process of expediting foreclosure cases through the courts by siding with lenders.

***

• In the case before Judge Colton, attorney Loretta Bangor questioned the validity of affidavits submitted by Everhome's attorney, a lawyer with Shapiro & Fishman, one of three firms under investigation by the Florida attorney general for "unfair and deceptive actions" in foreclosure cases. Judge Colton, one of two retired judges hired to handle foreclosures under the new state program, did not ask to see the documents. Nor did he question Shapiro & Fishman about the validity of the documents.(1)

______________________

When Judge Colton's conduct was brought to Palm Beach County Chief Judge Peter Blanc's attention, Blanc reportedly stated:

• "If Judge Colton was wrong, the case can be appealed, and it will come back."(2)

For the story, see Legislature did not approve $9.6 million for judges to listen only to lenders.

(1) See Jacksonville Trial Judge Bags Foreclosure Mill, Chase, WAMU For Fraud On The Court In Foreclosure Action; Dismisses Suit With Prejudice for more on the Shapiro & Fishman foreclosure mill.

(2) Chief Judge Blanc's "brilliant" suggestion, of course, necessarily assumes that the financially strapped homeowner can cough up the cash to cover the cost of both:

• a supersedeas bond (to stall the foreclosure sale), and
• appellate counsel (even if the homeowner has the cash to pay legal fees for an appeal, there's a good chance that his/her attorney in the trial court doesn't do appellate work, thereby forcing him/her to scramble to find another lawyer to file the appeal).

A better approach to the administration of justice in these types of cases, where the average foreclosure defendant isn't flush with extra cash, may be to simply get it right the first time. We'll all be better off (just think of all the "clouded titles" to foreclosed homes that can be avoided if the trial judges try to get it right the first time).