Trimmed-down version of Florida's foreclosure court to remain in service | jacksonville.com

The funding that created Florida's foreclosure courts is gone but, at least in Jacksonville, the court will continue — with a change.

Last year, the Legislature approved $6 million for courts whose sole purpose was to speed the process and reduce the backlog of foreclosure cases. Retired senior judges were hired and paid by the day with a mission of clearing 25 cases an hour.

The courts drew criticism from defense lawyers, who coined it "rocket docket."

Despite Florida still having more than 300,000 pending foreclosure cases, the Legislature did not renew the funding.

With no money to keep the retired judges, the 4th Circuit will rotate civil judges through the foreclosure court rather than reverting to foreclosures going through regular civil court.

Circuit Judge Frederick Tygart, the administrative judge for the civil division, said he was happy with the way the court has worked.

"The majority of residential foreclosures are handled by attorneys, those who represent lenders, who each handle a lot of cases," Tygart said. "It makes it much easier for them to schedule all their hearings in one place, rather than eight locations around the courthouse.

"And it's much more defendant/borrower friendly because there's just one place to go."

For the past year, four retired senior judges took turns working four days a week. After funding ends on June 30, Tygart said, the foreclosure court will operate two days each week. Eight civil judges will rotate through, so that each spends two days a month in the foreclosure court.

But the court will now be reserved for those hearings expected to take less than 15 minutes. All others, Tygart said, will go back to the civil divisional court.

In Clay and Nassau counties, which have each had one judge working two days a week, all foreclosure cases will go back to civil court.

April Charney, a defense lawyer with Jacksonville Area Legal Aid and one of the most outspoken critics of the foreclosure court, said she wasn't sure what to think about the change.

"The question is who gets to decide if it takes 15 minutes," she said. "... With all due respect to Judge Tygart, the courts are deceiving themselves by trying to box these complicated cases into 15 minutes."

Chip Parker, another foreclosure defense attorney, was happy about more cases going back into civil court.

"It certainly seems better and more constitutional than what's been occurring in the foreclosure court," Parker said. "It's not a bad idea that if you're not interested in defending your foreclosure, that it's best to move those along as cheaply and quickly as possible.

"My concern has been the due process issues that arose in defended cases, where people were trying to save their property."