Five (5) years ago I was appointed
as a Philadelphia Mortgage Foreclosure Court Judge Pro Tempore and the results have been astonishing.
Since 1998's "mortgage
foreclosure meltdown", residential foreclosure cases have comprised 19% of
Philadelphia's civil case inventory.
Philadelphia's conciliation program
requires lenders to meet face-to-face with residential homeowners in every
owner-occupied property subject to foreclosure before the foreclosure proceeds.
Each meeting is supervised by
an experienced consumer lending attorney serving as a "Judge Pro Tempore" seeking to forge a
permanent resolution ranging from workout alternatives including forbearance
and modification agreements.
Each week between 150 to 300
cases appear before the foreclosure court and the results have been
spectacularly impressive.
Over the past sixty (60)
months, our nationally renowned diversion program has served 23,000
Philadelphia residents and saved over 5,000 homes from sheriff's sale.
In 2008, 95.3% of foreclosures
were resolved in 7 to 13 months; in 2009, 53.7% were resolved in 7 to 13 months,
in 2010, 88.6% were resolved in 7 to 13 months, and in 2011, 67% were resolved
in 7 to 13 months.
Despite these impressive
statistics and case backlog reduction, 6304 foreclosures are pending and the
number of filings have not diminished.
Further, new issues keep
emerging including foreclosures of seniors living alone whom die, are deemed mentally
incompetent or face crippling financial trouble of which their families are
unaware.
Philadelphia's Mortgage
Foreclosure program has implemented an innovative dual-track process
integrating the handling of both the foreclosure and estate situation to simplify
and accelerate resolving the dispute.
