State High Court Task Force Issues Report & Recommendations On Florida Foreclosure Crisis

In Tallahassee, Florida, the Miami Daily Business Review reports:

• Florida Supreme Court task force is calling for uniform mandatory mediation for all residential foreclosure cases in the state to deal with the tide of foreclosures that has swamped courthouses. The proposal, obtained by the Daily Business Review, calls for all circuits to implement a mediation process modeled on a program used by the Miami-Dade Circuit Court and two others, where lenders pay for the mediation and borrowers provide their financial information to the lenders.

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• If the proposals are adopted by the Florida Supreme Court, it would be the first instance of a uniform statewide effort in Florida to handle the glut of foreclosure cases clogging courthouses. [...] In cases where borrowers aren’t located, the task force also recommends a new form for process servers to fill out to demonstrate they undertook a diligent search to find the borrowers.(1)(2)

For the story, see Mandatory mediation urged to help streamline process.

See also, The Wall Street Journal: Florida Court Wants Mandatory Mediation on Foreclosures.

Go here for the Florida Supreme Court Task Force's Final Report And Recommendations On Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Cases.

(1) This recommendation reflects the apparent concern the task force has in curbing "sewer service" by unscrupulous process servers. See Miami Daily Business Review: Judge grapples with her discovery of 15,000 unserved foreclosure cases.

(2) Other recommendations include: adopting uniform statewide forms and procedures; creating a central statewide foreclosure Web site to provide basic information now "strewn haphazardly across the Internet"; consumer education on avoiding foreclosure scams; and aggressive prosecution by the Florida Bar of attorney misconduct.