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Look, if you think judicial foreclosure is working - take a look at the Palm Beach County Clerk & Comptroller's foreclosure site and pick any day's auction calendar. Look at the case numbers on the docket for that day. The first four digits are the year the case was filed. I regularly see days when 70% of the sales scheduled for a given day are 2+ years old. They have been in the process of foreclosure for that long, and some are 3 and 4 years into the process.

In a non-judicial foreclosure state, such as Georgia, the process is on average 60-90 days, though it could be as fast as 40-45 days. That non-judicial process begins when the lender reaches a decision point to initiate the foreclosure, and that typically happens after a homeowner is past due on 5-6 months worth of payments. So, while the process is shorter, it is still nothing like an instantaneous surprise sprung on the borrower.

In Florida (and Wisconsin) these extended periods of legal limbo (where the borrower lives rent free for 2+ years, or the house sits abandoned for 2+ years) simply exaggerate the impact of that foreclosed property on surrounding home values.

An approach like that used in Georgia establishes procedure and only becomes judicial when an exception occurs. Florida and Wisconsin (and other states) presume that all foreclosures need to invoke the full judicial process. The added costs are not just the additional negative impact on market values from the extreme delay, but also the enormous administrative costs and the impact of the delay in the non-foreclosure civil calendar of these courts.

And before you post recommendations for Joanne Hennessey's radio program, check her Florida Bar disciplinary history.