Foreclosure Court Adds More Judges
October 22nd, 2008 by 
Joseph Smith
If you are still having trouble picturing the current housing market conditions, you should only look at the foreclosure court in Cook County, Chicago. In order to keep up with the soaring number of foreclosure filings, the said court has decided to hire four additional judges, bringing the total number of foreclosure judges to 14.
Aside from addressing the piling foreclosure cases, the county court hopes to start preparing for the worst. With the country battling perhaps the worst financial crisis in history, judges are expecting more homeowners losing their homes to foreclosure.
At present, the judges are busy dealing with the foreclosures, which were filed last year. Since it could take a year for foreclosure cases to be resolved, it is only understandable for the foreclosure court to expect an increase in its case load in the coming months.
If you think that this is the sad part, you are mistaken. According to court records, only 20 percent of the foreclosure cases have their day in court and a whopping 80 percent go uncontested.
Foreclosure judges have long encouraged distressed homeowners and mortgage lenders to re-negotiate the terms of the existing mortgage agreement in order to avoid a foreclosure. Unfortunately, only a small percentage of these troubled borrowers got approved for a repayment or loan modification.
Last October 1, the controversial mortgage relief program sponsored by the government was finally implemented and over 400,000 troubled borrowers are expected to benefit from it. Since the program is voluntary, lenders will still have to approve the homeowner’s application before the mortgage can be re-financed.
For the month of August, national foreclosure rate rose by 26.69 percent compared to the previous year. More homeowners are expected to face foreclosure with the collapse of the financial market still yet to make an impact on the housing industry.
