Court of Law Gone Awry as Court of Feeling

Brevard County is following the lead of certain other Counties in the State of Florida in ordering mediation between the parties in a foreclosure. Normally mediation is ordered when one has parties in a DISPUTE. In the foreclosure, there is no dispute, it is a fact the house payments have not been made. Since there is no dispute of fact, we can only have a court ordered mediation out of a FEELING it is a ‘good thing’ to allow those who owe to stay in their house even if they are not paying.

Once again, the Courts move to further obfuscate the system of justice with maneuvers nowhere required in the Florida Statutes. The Administrative Order for the Mediations states “Owner Occupied Residential foreclosures place increased strain on family relationships, leading to higher divorce rates, increased incidents of domestic violence, and adverse impacts on children”.

Now that may be true in certain circumstances, but I highly doubt any secured loan had a clause for discontinuing payment when the payment created stress on the borrower. We are not seeing a rule of law, there is no dispute of the facts of the matter, we are simply seeing a delay because it feels good to do so.

The mediation maneuver is going to make things even worse for housing. There is little to mediate and those in default will have the ability to play the courts for more months of free living. If you are $15,000 in arrears and $50,000 upside down there is nothing to mediate, but the lender must pay for mediation costs and send someone who can ‘do’ something. The myth has been spread the Judges are clogged with foreclosures. Most foreclosure work takes place outside the courtroom in ensuring actions and files are complete. The final hearing takes a few minutes per house – you either can get the mortgage caught up or you cannot. Court Ordered Foreclosure Mediation at $250 a pop will be a windfall for certain attorneys.

There is no way we will ever dig out of this mess. The Courts have decided it is their job to keep people in their foreclosed homes, like a social welfare agency. How are lenders out of state supposed to have representatives here for every case? In the order is states that not only must the lender pay for the mediation, if the lender fails to make the meeting the entire Foreclosure case is thrown out and must be started anew. My experience is we already have numbers of professional rent cheats adept at prolonging the eviction system to squeeze out further free living, now we have an even more stringent system than the evictions which I guarantee will be played to the hilt by thousands of house owners.

If I were a bank given the rules in Brevard County and the Lien Police in some of the cities I would pull a State Farm and hit the road. If one cannot foreclose on the secured asset one will not make further loans on secured assets. The Courts are, like the Federal Government, assisting the improvident at the cost of the provident who will find it shortly even more impossible to get a bank loan or mortgage. If you think the banks are tight now, just wait.

Most bizarre is the requirement for the plaintiff (lender) to have someone at the mediation who can ‘cut a deal’. If these ‘deals’ are cut, particularly with debt being slashed, the Year of Mortgage Jubilee picks up further steam. Evidently disappointed only Federal Judges may get such authority during bankruptcies, the State now moves to gain itself the same powers through ‘persuasion’. This destructive maddening rush by Legislators and Judges to crush contracts will in the end eliminate private lenders such that only Nationalized Banks will be making house loans.