Foreclosure cases clogging court system

The chief judge of the Pinellas-Pasco court system hopes 2010 will bring relief for judges as well as consumers and lenders caught in the growing morass of the worse foreclosure crisis in the nation.

"It's almost 2,000 foreclosure cases alone per judge to handle," said J. Thomas McGrady, the chief judge of the Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court.

As 2009 draws to a close, foreclosure cases are stacking up twice as fast as judges can resolve them, McGrady said. The workload for judges who handle all kinds of civil cases has nearly tripled due to the swelling number of foreclosures that has roughly doubled every year for the past three years or so.

If you add foreclosures to other civil matters, judges in Pinellas and Pasco are struggling to keep up with their dockets and in many cases are falling behind.

"It's now over 3,400 cases per judge," McGrady said.

The Florida Supreme Court recently offered one solution in a court order that essentially calls for mandatory mediation for homesteaded properties before the legal process of foreclosures can begin.

The order sets up a system of mediation management and shifts the cost burden to lenders to encourage homeowners to renegotiate loans rather than simply giving up and walking away.

"The mediation system is a win-win for both sides if they come in good faith," McGrady said.

McGrady initiated a similar voluntary mediation program back on October to help divert some cases from courts in the 6th Circuit and hopes the Supreme Court order will take further pressure off of the justice system.

Right now, there are more than 23,000 open foreclosures in Pinellas and Pasco counties, McGrady said. The Supreme Court estimates the statewide number is around 456,000, one of the measures that puts Florida at the epicenter of the nation's foreclosure crisis.

"Until the foreclosure situation is resolved it's only going to get worse," McGrady said.