In 2007 the foreclosure caseload exploded in Florida.  In 2006 the caseload was fairly standard, with 9,800 cases filed.  Since then nearly 215,717 have been filed in total, averaging about 40,000 a year.  

This means that 11^th Circuit court has had to stretch to keep up. Individual caseloads tripled from approximately 1,900 active cases per judge to about 7,000 during the worst moments.  Work is no longer quite as heavy, but it still involves about 5,000 per judge, which makes keeping up a struggle. This includes not just the judges who are on the cases, many of which have been taken out of retirement to help, but also the clerks of court- those individuals who handle all of the paperwork and docketing for each case.

At the same time budgets have not really stretched to accommodate the increase.  Many clerk positions have been cut and vacancies have remained unfilled. 

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey is an administrative judge for the civil circuit division and answered some of the questions from the Miami Herald regarding just how the court has had to adjust.

“To assure access to justice, we set up a special calendar which only hears foreclosure summary judgements full-time.  We have tried to keep judge’s calendars accessible for hearings in other types of cases by making sure we are still setting time for jury trials and by splitting calendars so that foreclosure cases are heard at separate times from other cases, so that the volume of foreclosure cases does not elbow out every other type of civil proceeding.”

It’s good to know that the glut of foreclosure cases isn’t affecting other civil cases.  Actually, things seem to be going fairly well in Miami-Dade county. There hasn’t been any delay in foreclosure cases for nearly two years. 

That’s impressive, given the Robo-signing scandal investigation that had temporarily slowed filings has concluded.  Their rate is going on at about 2,300 new foreclosure cases a month, although there does seem to be more loan modifications and short sales going through.

And while there are rumors that another tsunami of foreclosures are about to reach the courts no one seems to think that they will actually happen.  Both banks and law firms seem to realize that filing too many cases at once creates quality control problems for everyone on every side of the courtroom.