As I've written before, I currently serve on foreclosure mediation panels in several judicial districts in New Mexico, and participate regularly in the Multi-State Foreclosure Prevention and Mediation Group listserve/discussions group (Listserve).
Through these discussions, I've learned that today many, many other states or jurisdictions have also organized foreclosure mediation programs in response to the foreclosure crisis. See RSI Foreclosure Mediation and Mitigation Program Models, http://courtadr.org/file/ForeclosureMediationProgramModels_May2011.pdf (accessed Dec. 29, 2011). Although some such programs have struggled or even been discontinued, such as in Florida, elsewhere the judges are quite committed to enforcing the letter and spirit of their foreclosure mediation orders.
In Deutsche Bank v. Bailey, Case No. 10CVE-11-17441 (Ct. Comn. Pleas, Franklin Co., Ohio), Judge Richard A. Frye recently dismissed a foreclosure suit in which the lender, Deutsche Bank, failed to attend the mediation, and also failed to send the loan servicer, JPMorgan Chase. The Judge noted that the loan servicer witness "seemed a pleasant and honest man," and had he "or another person with some local tie been given an opportunity to participate in mediation this case might well have been fairly resolved to the satisfaction of both sides long ago," and before the arrears had increased from $80,000 in 2005 to $110,000 at the time of trial.
Judge Frye observed that "[f]oreclosure proceedings are governed by equity and statute," and a mediation program is "[p]erhaps the most 'equitable' feature of foreclosure proceedings in the current national crisis." However, Judge Frye concluded "[t]here is no equity in what followed" in the instant case. While "[m]ediation is encouraged not only by this court as an institution, but by [the state legislature], and the law generally....Deutsche Bank seemingly couldn't care less."
Franklin County, Ohio is noted by foreclosure mediators in the know to have a particularly successful mediation program. Judge Frye's decision and final judgment of dismissal "supports mediation as an important process in foreclosure," as Listserve Coordinator Jacqueline Hagerott observed.
However, Judge Frye did not overreach in his apparent ire at the disregard for his order and his Court's program. At the conclusion he dismissed the foreclosure proceeding but without prejudice "to avoid conferring a windfall upon Ms. Bailey," the homeowner who had requested the aborted mediation..
If you are interested in mediation services for a foreclosure matter (residential or commercial), please contact Pilar Vaile, P.C. at (505) 247-0802 or info@pilarvailepc.com.
