Number of Florida foreclosures tumble.

Is Florida's long bout with court-clogging foreclosure cases nearing an end? Or is the state experiencing only a temporary pause before a final flood?

Lawyers, judges, and court officials are sifting through data like a fortune teller with tea leaves trying to discern the future. What they know is this: On July 1, 2013, a new state law intended to speed up the handling of foreclosure cases went into effect. It allowed lenders easier access to summary judgment hearings in foreclosure cases but imposed tighter requirements on paperwork for foreclosure filings.

The immediate result was foreclosure filings, which had been running around 14,000 a month, fell off by more than half in July 2013, although they recovered slightly in succeeding months. Several people involved in foreclosures predicted that once banks and lenders adjusted to the new requirements in the foreclosure law, the filing rate would pick up after the new year.

But for the first several months of 2014, foreclosures have remained at about 50 percent of the previous year's level, and those involved in foreclosures differ on whether it will stay that low. Although several reasons are given for the continued lower filing rate, one is attributed to the effort by state courts to reduce the huge backlog of foreclosure cases. For the first time in years, instead of chipping away at the problem, clerks, judges, case managers, and others have put a serious dent in the pile of cases.

Kristine Slayden, manager of resource planning for the Office of the State Court Administrator, said last July the court system had a backlog of around 329,000 foreclosure cases and by April 2014, the latest figures available, that number was 185,823. (If filings had continued at the previous rate, that number would have been 250,000 or more.)

The reduction is enough that the Trial Court Budget Commission tentatively has decided not to ask for an appropriation next year to continue using senior judges to help with foreclosures, although the TCBC will ask that the use of case managers continue, Slayden said.

"Right now, the money we've received [for more court resources] through the national mortgage foreclosure settlement runs out June 30, 2015," she said.

"The idea is by that point we may have worked through the backlog enough. We think there may still be an elevated level, but they won't be at the crisis level we have been at."

As for the reduced number of foreclosure filings, those involved in foreclosures point to a number of factors besides the new state law. The national mortgage settlement (which gave the state courts the money for senior judges and case managers) contained billions...