Lee County Florida Clerk Of Courts

Florida's controversial Rocket Docket for foreclosure filings ends

LEE COUNTY, Fla.- Lee County courts credits the state's Rocket Docket initiative for clearing out a system, swamped with foreclosure filings.

"We got rid of that giant boulder hanging over our heads, that I think everyone felt like was going to crush us," Lee County Clerk of Courts Charlie Green said Friday.

Last July, the state allocated $9 million to help courts flush out foreclosure filings, which were clogging the system.

In Lee County, the program proved successful. 62% of backlogged foreclosure filings were quickly cleared out, leaving the system with a more manageable 6,500 cases today.

But some say the Rocket Docket pushed cases through too fast, often overlooking important parts of the judicial process.

"It's a possibility that yes, there were homes that shouldn't at that time have been taken from the homeowners. At that time it probably shouldn't have happened," Dellutri Law Group attorney Danielle Zemola said Friday.

While funding for the foreclosure docket has dried up, Lee courts hopes to continue to keep cases moving swiftly through the system.

"They're not going to get the force that they had before, but they will go through. I'm hoping we will still be able to allocate some specific time for those," Green said.

Starting next week, foreclosure filings will be heard in a regular, civil court.

Cheating the system: how people are skirting Lee County court fees ...

Walking down the aisle can be a dream come true. Even the perfect venue, photographer, and cake may not be enough to make a marriage last.

Adrian Watson is heading to the Lee County Clerk of Courts to file divorce papers.

Filing divorce papers in Lee County will cost you $408 dollars just in court fees. But Four in your Corner found out some of you aren’t paying the fees and you’re getting away with it.

Attorney Robert Henderson shows Fox 4 dozens of affidavits, signed under oath, that are clearly inaccurate.

“This has the possibility to be very destructive to our judicial system, doesn’t it?” says Henderson.

Here’s how Henderson knows: When you file for divorce, you get two sets of paperwork.

In one set, you declare all your assets – that includes your cash, property, and income.

The other set is an Application for Indigency – that’s where you can ask the court to waive your fees because you can’t afford them.

The problem: some of you are listing hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets on the first application and zero assets on the other.

“Some people get essentially a free ride [when they] are not entitled to a free ride and everybody else, either by paying filing fees or by paying taxes. Well, we pick up the slack,” Henderson says.

So, who’s checking to make sure that doesn’t happen?

I went to Lee County’s court administration.

“It was news to me when you first approached the subject.”

The court administration spokesperson, Sheila Mann tells FOX 4 her office doesn’t have the authority to step in.

“The court can’t just look into and say okay I’m going to start looking into this or im going to start investigating. It has to be brought to the court’s attention.” Mann says.

Bottom line, whose responsibility is it to make sure that people aren’t taking advantage of the system?

“That would be the clerks.” Mann says.

So I went straight to Lee County’s Clerk Of Court, Charlie Green.

“We process what is given to us,” Green says.

The clerk tells me nobody in his office actually verifies the paperwork they receive.

Green says doing so would take too much time and money.

“If they fill out the affidavit and lie, they’re liars. I have no way to dig behind it and say you’re not a liar.” Green says.

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