Friday, December 11, 2015

Florida Appeals Courts Spent A Busy 2015 Reversing Trial Court Screw-ups In Foreclosure Cases

Anyone paying attention to the foreclosure litigation going on in the Florida courts knows that the appeals courts have been kept busy having to reverse incorrect rulings issued by the trial courts which have been unfavorable to homeowners (by my rough count, we're looking at around 150-175 reversals in 2015 alone (and counting) - possibly even a little more).

The following list (not necessarily all-inclusive, and in no particular order) represents what appears to be most of the reversals of homeowner-unfavorable trial court rulings (37 in total to date) by only one of Florida's five appellate courts - the 4th District Court of Appeal - in 2015.

Included in the list is the case caption, appellate court case number (those looking for the official citation are left on their own to locate it - sorry), and the guilty trial judge issuing the incorrect ruling. In addition, while most of the cases involved homeowners represented by attorneys, six involved homeowners who represented themselves (ie. pro se) - at least in the appellate phase of the litigation, and are noted accordingly.

Finally, in each case, the appeals court reversal was unanimous (3-0 rulings).

One can only imagine, through extrapolation, how many screwed-over homeowners lost their homes due to incorrect trial judge rulings who, because they (or their attorneys) lacked the knowledge and/or wherewithal, failed to appeal the outcomes of their cases in the lower courts (dozens for every one reversal? maybe 100 or more per reversal?).