Foreclosure defense attorney and legal blogger Roy Oppenheim shared his thoughts on the Florida Supreme Court’s mandated mediation process with Miami Herald writer Harris Meyer in an article published on Sunday about Florida foreclosures.

“I enjoy mediations and find them very effective,” Oppenheim said. “But I won’t mediate unless the bank has done its homework.”

Oppenheim went on to explain mediation can be successful for homeowners and the banks only if the mediator is skilled, the lender has read the documentation and also knows the value of the property and the holding costs.

Oppenheim’s comments follow the news that foreclosure filings in Broward have fallen from 51,670 in 2009 to 17,565 in the first five months of 2010. However, as Oppenheim Law explained on the South Florida Law Blog in May, this decrease in Florida foreclosure filings can probably be attributed to the new rules promulgated by the Florida Supreme Court requiring every residential mortgage foreclosure complaint must be verified and prove that the plaintiff is the actual owner and holder of the promissory note.

Oppenheim Law wrote, “Until now, banks have been abusing a Florida statute allowing them to file a foreclosure based on a “lost note.” The problem: the notes aren’t lost; the banks are just too lazy to look for them. This new rule is halting foreclosure filings in their tracks, as banks scramble to find the notes so they can foreclose.”

Also less encouraging is the fact that commercial foreclosures are increasing, and concerns of increased residential foreclosures due to the re-setting of rates under adjustable-rate mortgages may accelerate, according to the Herald.

Want to learn more about mediation and foreclosure? Join Oppenheim Law for our free monthly foreclosure defense workshop next Wednesday, July 7 @ 6 pm and check out the entire Miami Herald foreclosure story in the Oppenheim Law Newsroom.

Well the early statistics are in http://bit.ly/RsUIQ. As expected, we are finding in Florida that the likelihood of completing a loan modification is much higher if conducted with a mediator under court supervision. That’s why it’s likely why we can anticipate that the Florida Supreme Court will require mandatory mediation in every foreclosure action. In fact, in the few Florida counties where mediation is already required a whopping 50% of the foreclosures are settling usually with a new loan amount, a decreased interest rate and with a new lower payment.

It is just unfortunate that borrowers need to take the lenders to the wall before they get the bank’s attention. We are seeing and hearing too many times when the banks just won’t cooperate with a modification until the person is in foreclosure and defended by competent counsel.

I’m not sure if it’s because the borrowers can’t get someone with authority to talk with and negotiate with until they get to mediation or if it is because the banks are just too overwhelmed in the first place.

In any event let’s just hope that the Florida Supreme Court Task Force sees the trend as we do and does the right thing by implementing unified mandatory mediation rules for mortgage foreclosures throughout all of the Florida judicial circuits.