Beginning on April 8, we reported on a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, challenging the use of "rocket dockets" to speed up the backlogged foreclosure process in several Florida counties. The ACLU argued that the "rocket docket" system, which has been in effect since last July, violates the due process rights of homeowners and heavily favors lenders.

However, yesterday it was reported that a Florida appellate court denied the ACLU's claim to stop the "rocket docket" system. The system was adopted by five Florida counties, including Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Hendry and Glades, but will expire this Thursday when its funding runs out.

The "rocket docket" process was put in place after the Florida Supreme Court demanded that the lower court create a system to deal with the 40,000 backlog civil and foreclosure cases that sat in the system last July. The Supreme Court said that the system should only allow foreclosures to spend 12 months in the courts from "filing to final disposition."

The ACLU argued that the "rocket docket" system was designed based on advice from the now infamous Law Offices of David J. Stern, a "foreclosure mill" that has since closed and now faces sanctions for possibly violating the Florida Bar's rules of professional conduct.

The ACLU and foreclosure defense attorneys filed the suit on behalf of one plaintiff homeowner who they said never got his day in court after judges ignored mandatory court rules and spent only a few minutes per foreclosure case. The original suit was filed in April and had the plaintiff prevailed, would have allowed additional cases to be pulled from the foreclosure fast track as well.

As the funding for the "rocket docket" system runs out at the end of this month, four of the five counties participating will have met or almost met the goal of reducing the foreclosure backlog by 62 percent in one year. But some still argue that many homeowners were denied their rights in the process.

Source: HousingWire, "Florida court upholds foreclosure 'rocket docket' system," Jon Prior, 6/27/2011.