Judges getting fed up
Short Sale Dirty Talk
Looks like the judges are cleaning out old cases.
Every month I look up the status of the foreclosure on each and every short sale file that I am working on. I do this because even though you tell the seller to keep you up to date on the foreclosure, many of them do not. There would be nothing worse than working on a file for a few months only to find out at the last minute that it is scheduled for sale in the next couple of days. Talk about having to scramble.
Anyways, the reason I am telling you this today is because over the last couple months I found something very interesting that had been filed on several cases. The cases were even in different counties which makes me wonder if this is something happening statewide. I found that several clerk of the courts had filed "Notice of lack of Prosecution". In the many years that I have been doing this I have never seen this done. Now all of a sudden there were several.
I have to say that I was shocked and of course started researching. What I found was that if there is no record activity for a period of ten (10) months and no stay has been entered or approved by the Court, the Clerk of the Circuit Court has the right to file a "Notice of lack of Prosecution". The plaintiff has to respond within 60 days or the clerk can generate an Order of Dismissal and provide it along with the court file, if such file is requested, to the section judge. The following is an example:
IN THE CIRCUIT/COUNTY COURT FOR THE __________ JUDICIAL CIRCUIT
IN AND FOR ____________ COUNTY, FLORIDA
______________ DIVISION
CASE NO. __________________________
____________________________
Plaintiff(s),
v.
_____________________________
Defendant(s).
NOTICE OF LACK OF PROSECUTION
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that it appears on the face of the record that no activity by filing of pleadings, order of court, or otherwise has occurred for a period of 10 months immediately preceding service of this notice, and no stay has been issued or approved by the court. Pursuant to rule 1.420(e), if no such record activity occurs within 60 days following the service of this notice, and if no stay is issued or approved during such 60-day period, this action may be dismissed by the court on its own motion without further notice or hearing or on the motion of any interested person, whether a party to the action or not, after reasonable notice to the parties, unless a party shows good cause in writing at least 5 days before the hearing on the motion why the action should remain pending.
I CERTIFY THAT A COPY HEREOF has been furnished to [Name and Address of Parties Receiving Notice] by U.S. Mail on [date].
_______________________________
Deputy Clerk
All I can say is that this is something I am going to keep an eye on. I am thinking it could be good or bad. Obviously good if the case gets dismissed because I will have all the time in the world to do the short sale. And possibly bad if the motion lights a fire under the plaintiffs butt and the file starts moving at records speed. I will continue to watch these cases over the next few months and let you know what transpires. If these cases get dismissed then that will be one less monkey on my back while I am negotiating. Woo Hoo!!! Until next time...
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