A View of the Bench

At a recent  seminar with the Daily Business Review,  250 lawyers engaged in the practice of  foreclosure law where a number of foreclosure and appellate judges served on a panel with me, I admonished the judicial branch to take heed. Specifically, I suggested that as the Florida Supreme Court in 1939 in Kilgore Groves, Inc. v. Mayo warned, one cannot allow judicial expediency to become the end all in the dispensing and administration of justice; for if that were to occur we would no longer be a society of laws but rather one of men that would allow the whims and notions of the moment to drive the law into an abyss that ultimately moves society towards anarchy.

Obviously, the way the courts are handling the foreclosure trial dockets by dispensing with traditional rules of due process, civil procedure and the rules of evidence puts these issues front and center.  At times it would seem to the lowly bystander that the courts and judges are following “lore” rather than the law due to some unseen yet unbearable pressure from the Legislature, the Governor, the Supreme Court and even in some cases the chief judges of a particular Circuit to reduce their outstanding cases at all cost.

I once again suggest that in America historically we judge ourselves as much by the road we choose to take as we do our destination.  The process of getting where we go as a nation will ultimately be the predictor of our destiny.  How we get through this foreclosure crisis, and for that matter any other subsequent crisis, will be a measure of how we will handle future crises, whether with grace and dignity or simply with an eye to expediency at whatever cost.  History will likely look back at this time period as one of the darkest hours in the annals of Florida jurisprudence.  I for one do not believe the ends justify the means at any cost.  However, I am clearly in a minority when compared to my esteemed brethren on the bench who may think it’s ok to sometimes throw the baby out with the bath water.

May G-d forgive us and them.

From the Trenches,

Roy Oppenheim

Real estate and foreclosure defense attorney, Roy Oppenheim left Wall Street for Main Street, founding Oppenheim Law along with his wife Ellen Pilelsky in 1989 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and is vice president of Weston Title and creator of the South Florida Law Blog, named the best business and technology blog by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Follow Roy on Twitter at @OpLaw or like Oppenheim Law on Facebook. Visit NewsRoom for the latest on Roy.