Hawaii Judiciary: We Can't Handle Foreclosure Flood

Rj Brown

If mainland mortgage lenders follow Fannie Mae's footsteps — opting to send foreclosures through the judicial system — officials say it could overwhelm Hawaii's courts.

"We are experiencing right now an increase (in judicial foreclosures)," Rodney Maile, administrative director of the courts, told lawmakers at a Wednesday information briefing on recent foreclosure legislation. "If that continues in the long run, we will not have the resources."

Maile said in order to handle the heavier volume, the judiciary would need to ask the Legislature for more money.

On June 15, lending giant Fannie Mae announced that it would convert all its new and pending non-judicial foreclosures in Hawaii to judicial foreclosures. Fannie has said it made the move in response to Act 48, a new law that placed a temporary moratorium on non-judicial foreclosures in Hawaii.

Last year, the courts handled about 10 percent of state's foreclosures. But some mortgage experts say 2011 will be a different story.

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