Last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association released a new report analyzing foreclosures countrywide during the first quarter of this year, and it was revealed that close to 25 percent of the nation's home foreclosures are right here in Florida.

In fact, there are currently 466,454 loans in foreclosure in Florida, which amounts to more than the foreclosures in 22 other states combined, the report indicated. Ultimately, it appears that while many other states are working to deplete their foreclosure backlog, the "foreclosure mills" and "robo-signing" scandals have set the state way back.

Additionally, as we reported last week, Florida lawmakers recently voted not to extend a $6 million stipend aimed at reducing the foreclosure backlog in the state's courts, which now sits at 310,770 cases.

So what can be done to help chip away at this backlog? Some people say an overhaul of the state's foreclosure process is needed.

The Mortgage Bankers Association's report drew a distinction between states which require foreclosures to go through the court system and states that do not. It concluded that the states which process foreclosures nonjudicially, like California, Arizona and Michigan, have decreasing foreclosures while states that use the judicial process have increasing foreclosures.

But many foreclosure defense attorneys and homeowner advocates say that it was the banks and their lawyers who got the state into this mess in the first place, so homeowners shouldn't have to pay the penalty by losing their due process rights.

"The bankers should not be allowed to be prosecutor, judge and jury," one foreclosure defense attorney told The Palm Beach Post. "There is no formula for nonjudicial foreclosures to work in the state of Florida."

Legislation to make Florida a nonjudicial foreclosure state was pressed by some state lawmakers during the 2010 legislative session, but the efforts failed, The Palm Beach Post reported. Right now, there are 21 states including Florida that are considered judicial foreclosure states, according to RealtyTrac.

Source: The Palm Beach Post, "Time to overhaul foreclosure process? 'Court's cry for help'," Kimberly Miller, 5/23/2011.