Cook County Circuit Court is delaying foreclosure actions against some homeowners as it tries to work through a growing backlog of cases.
Chancery Division Presiding Judge Dorothy Kirie Kinnaird notified judges and attorneys April 1 that all mortgage default calls — those first court appearances made by a lender when a borrower has not responded to a foreclosure action — would be canceled for July and August.
For delinquent borrowers, the action gives them more time to find a way to stay in their homes. It may have the greatest effect on homeowners involved in the 13,196 mortgage foreclosures filed during the first three months of the year because of the lag time between when a case is filed and a homeowner is served and the date by which a homeowner has to submit a response, and if he does not, when a default call would be scheduled.
As of last year, about 80 percent of homeowners involved in foreclosure cases did not respond to foreclosure filings.
The court has been unable to keep up with the 2008 caseload, much less tackle the growing number of filings made so far this year. As of the end of February, there were 46,854 mortgage foreclosure cases pending in the Chancery Division. Kinnaird estimated the number of mortgage foreclosure filings in Cook County could total more than 53,000 this year. Last year, Cook County recorded 43,876 mortgage foreclosure filings.
Kinnaird noted in her order that since 2005, the court has assigned 11 additional judges, seven extra courtrooms, 11 additional law clerks and four more secretaries to the Chancery Division. The caseload has made it difficult for the court, she wrote, to maintain a meaningful case management system.
“The Illinois Supreme Court requires that a case management conference be handled in every case,” she said in an interview. “Because of the numbers of foreclosures that have been filed in recent years, we have not been able to hold the kind of case management system we want.”
Kinnaird’s decision does not apply to those cases where a homeowner has answered or fought a foreclosure filing or those cases in which a homeowner consents to the foreclosure.
Some housing advocates said the move seemed to be a necessary way to deal with the surging figures. An added bonus for homeowners is that they may have more time to work with lenders and counselors to stave off foreclosure.
Earlier this week, the Treasury Department said it had started signing contracts with lenders to participate in the Making Homes Affordable housing recovery program, a $75 billion effort by President Barack Obama’s administration to stave off foreclosures by helping homeowners refinance or modify their mortgages.
“Right now is a really pivotal time in terms of being able to do loan workouts and modifications,” said Dan Lindsey, a supervising attorney at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago.
But not everyone is convinced that the delay benefits delinquent homeowners.
“You’re sort of giving more time to people who can’t be bothered to show up in court and face the situation,” said Michael van Zalingen, director of home ownership services for Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago Inc.
“Hopefully what emerges from this is a system that gives a shot to those homeowners who are proactive and facing the problem and working with counsel and lenders,” he said.
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