ACLU Attorneys Issue Reminder On Lee County Judges' Blatant Disregard For Court Rules In Implementing 'Rocket Docket'

In Lee County, Florida, a recent op-ed piece in the News-Press by Howard Simon and Larry Schwartztol, respectively, are the Executive Director of the ACLU of Florida and a staff attorney with the ACLU Racial Justice Program in New York City serves as a reminder of the insidious nature of "rocket dockets' used by local judges in their efforts to improperly bulldoze foreclosure cases out of the court system. From the column:

• The rules that ordinarily govern judicial procedures are designed to stop the sloppiness and fraud at the courthouse door.
• But many of those rules are being ignored in Lee County foreclosure cases. The court is pushing foreclosure cases forward without giving homeowners enough time to obtain and examine the banks' evidence.
• It issues rulings in favor of the banks without requiring them to attach the documents that supposedly support their claims. Perhaps most disturbingly, judges have stated from the bench that some of the basic ground rules don't apply to foreclosure cases.
• Why short-circuit the normal rules? Because the court is racing to clear foreclosure cases from the docket at a startlingly high speed.
• In an email obtained by the ACLU a court administrator stated the court's explicit monthly numerical goal: the number of cases filed each month "plus 1,040 additional cases."
• This means judges hear a couple hundred cases per day, usually devoting only a few minutes to each. But accelerating the judicial process comes at a price: accuracy and fairness.
• That's why the ACLU has filed a petition on [homeowner Georgi] Merrigan's behalf in the appellate court that oversees the Lee County courts. The ACLU's petition seeks an order that would make sure that Merrigan's case proceeds under the normal rules.(1).
• These rules aren't mere formalities. They ensure that both sides have the opportunity to make their best arguments so that the court can reach the right decision.
• Anything less violates the constitutional right to due process. Those rights represent a fundamental American idea: the government can't take away your most cherished property - your home - without giving you a fair hearing.
• There's no question that foreclosures are devastating Lee County. But no one benefits if people like Merrigan are forced out of their homes based on shoddy foreclosure practices and a failure by the courts to guard against them. The court system can do better, for Merrigan and for the people of Lee County.

For the op-ed piece, see Howard Simon and Larry Schwartztol: Court system denies homeowners fair chance.

For an opposing view from Lee County, Florida Clerk of Court Charlie Green, see Judges act lawfully, professionally, but not hastily, in foreclosure cases.

(1) For more from the American Civil Liberties Union on the filing of their recent petition with a Florida appeals court, see:

• Merrigan v. Bank of New York - Petition Challenging Constitutionality Of Lee County, FL Foreclosure Court,
• Appendix to Petition,
• Press Release: ACLU Charges High-Speed Florida Foreclosure Courts Deprive Homeowners Of Chance To Defend Homes (“Mass Foreclosure Docket” In Lee County Ignores Procedural Safeguards In Rush To Clear Cases).