Clerks of court warn budget cuts will delay filings
Just as I had predicted (and feared) now that the Florida legislature has passed a 7% budget cut to the state’s Clerk of Courts, officials from those offices are already warning of a major slowdown at courthouses across the state.
Case filings may now take weeks instead of days. Hearings may be delayed.
For people who have foreclosure cases before the court, don’t expect a return to the ‘rocket docket’ days.
Even though the state is giving the foreclosure docket a one-time $2 million allocation to hire more judges and caseworkers specifically to handle the foreclosure backlog, it will do little to fill in the gaps caused by the budget cuts.
For example in Palm Beach County, Clerk and Comptroller Sharon Bock said she is losing $2.5 million from her budget, but getting back just 200K. She added they’re expected to lose 55 jobs in that office, but will only be able to hire an additional 4 people for foreclosure cases.
So she’ll be able to hire more judges, but the Clerks Office won’t have anyone to process the titles for all these new foreclosures the state will now try to push through!!!
Palm Beach Gardens homeowner gets $18 million in foreclosure settlement
One of the little tidbits that came out of the finalizing of the settlement with the Attorneys General was that one homeowner in Palm Beach Gardens getting a little more financial relief than she ever expected.
$18 million dollars to be exact .
Now Lynn Szymoniak is no average homeowner. She’s a foreclosure fighter whose own personal investigation into the banks led to many of the industry changes that are being implemented by the settlement.
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