by Jesse H. Diner

Page 6

Coming soon on March 2, the Florida Legislature convenes its regular session, bringing the usual budget frenzy.

Amid the whirlwind of negotiations, I cannot stress strongly enough: Don’t feel comfortable that our job is done when it comes to court funding.

Great risk still looms.

Florida had the nation’s second highest foreclosure rate in November, surpassing California. One in every 165 homes in Florida entered some stage of foreclosure, according to RealtyTrac, Inc., second only to Nevada. Even if the employment picture improves, many adjustable-rate mortgages are scheduled to reset by 2011, potentially pushing thousands more homeowners into foreclosure.

In the first 10 months of 2009, Florida already had 335,994 foreclosure filings, with a clearance rate of 60 percent — likely to top 400,000 cases for the year. Compare that with just three years ago, when foreclosure filings for all of 2006 were 73,878 and the clearance rate was 79 percent.

Those latest numbers from the Office of the State Courts Administrator can be numbing.

But like a slap to the face, they should serve as a wake-up call to how close our courts are to failing to keep up with the deluge of cases pouring in.

The New York Times sounded the alarm by quoting Margaret Marshall, chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, who said our nation’s state courts — all suffering budget cuts in bad economic times — stand “at the tipping point of dysfunction.”

“At some point, slashing state court funding jeopardizes something beyond basic fairness, public safety, and even the rule of law. It weakens democracy itself,” the editorial concluded.

Those strong words are right on target for Florida.

We brace for another tough budgetary year, with at least a $2-billion-plus shortfall.

Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, chair of the Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Committee, recently painted an even bleaker picture: About $13 billion federal stimulus dollars spread over two years are drying up. The biggest chunk was used last year and there is $4.6 billion left this year.

“Right now, everybody should be keeping their powder dry and holding on to any potential revenue sources for the next 12 months until we see what happens with that potential $4.6 billion shortfall,” Crist told the audience that included public defenders, state attorneys, and OSCA staff.

“I can tell you the direction I see the appropriations process moving is not in generating new revenue, but making cuts. Because any revenues that could be generated are being held back until the following year when we are going to have to replace the stimulus,” Crist warned.

We must remain vigilant protecting court funding, because Florida has a growing unfunded liability in terms of having enough revenue to meet its obligations and services it hopes to render to its citizens.

It means there’s always the risk the courts will lose the gains we made last year by creating a dedicated court funding stream through the State Courts Revenue Trust Fund, and we simply can’t allow that to happen.

In 2008-09, 92 percent of the court budget was general revenue-funded and eight percent trust-funded. This year, only 30 percent of the court budget relies on general revenue funds, and the other 70 percent comes from trust funds.

The good news is the trust fund is performing so well that in November, the Article V Revenue Estimating Conference revised its forecast for 2010-11 by a substantial amount: from $214 million to $368 million. The downside is that most of that trust fund money is coming from foreclosure filings — and that is a temporary surplus.

Those gains do not restore what was lost in 10 percent cuts that started in 2007 and eliminated about 300 positions statewide.

If, heaven forbid, the courts were forced to suffer yet another 10 percent reduction — that would mean another $42 million in cuts and somewhere between 600-700 positions, or 22 percent, of the courts’ work force.

Who would lose their jobs? Among them, even more mediators and case managers, the very positions needed to carry out the foreclosure task force’s recommendations on how best to tackle the crisis.

When judges are struggling to deal with foreclosures, it takes precious judicial time away from other civil cases. Backlogged courts are simply bad for business and threaten access to courts for anyone waiting to solve disputes.

As the legislature convenes, prepare for a new battle and a new difficult year.

Please stand by ready to help, and let your elected legislators know how crucial adequate court funding is — not just for lawyers, but for everyone.