Judges Not Immune To 'Robosigner' Disease; J'ksonville Rubber-Stamper Says 'Rocket Docket' Works "Fine & Fair" While Declining To Be Named For Story

In Duval County, Florida, Financial Times reports:

• “I am required to bring this case to a conclusion. I am setting the date of foreclosure for January 12. I wish you well,” the duty judge told Anthony Bell, who was soaking up his tears with the last tissue from a box placed in front of him at courtroom 58 of the Duval County Courthouse. After eight minutes, that was the end of case 5543, “Wells Fargo Bank versus Anthony Bell”, for a property in Orange Park, Jacksonville.

***

• “The bank was just interested in getting some money back. And the judge, well, he needed to get my case out of the way as quickly as possible,” Mr Bell said as he left the courthouse.

• After dismissing Mr Bell, the judge began signing off on uncontested home repossession cases as fast as his clerk could pile up the folders, sometimes less than a minute per file. Thousands of cases are awaiting judgment and more are filed each day. “We are overbooked, just like airlines,” the judge, who declined to be named, told the Financial Times afterwards. “But it’s all working fine, fine and fair.”

For more, see US fast-tracks foreclosures through courts.