Florida court wants mediation in primary home foreclosures

The Florida Supreme Court's residential foreclosure task force recommended Monday that all cases involving primary homes should be mediated and that judges should expedite cases dealing with vacant and abandoned properties. The recommendations will go to the justices, who are looking for ways to help the court system cope with a flood of foreclosure cases caused by the national recession and Florida's housing bust. Florida has one of the nation's highest foreclosure rates. It was third at 3.4 percent behind Arizona and California in June. The panel suggested dividing foreclosure cases into three categories: primary homes, also known as homesteads; vacant and abandoned properties; and all others. Managed mediation should be required for homestead foreclosures unless the lender and borrower both agree to opt out or pre-suit mediation had been conducted, the task force wrote.

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