A 4th District Court of Appeal judge recently ruled that an affidavit presented by the employee of a bank in a foreclosure hearing must be regarded as hearsay. The judge found that, because the person preparing the affidavit did not have personal knowledge of the case and simply relied on a computer report, it was not admissible. For homeowners facing foreclosure, the ruling could mean the end of the controversial robo-signing practice that has plagued Florida mortgage holders for several years.

Bank representatives are arguing that the ruling makes it nearly impossible for them to win a foreclosure case, citing that the housing crisis naturally means that a mortgage can change hands several times. This, in turn, makes it very difficult to locate the original person that input the data.

But proponents of the ruling are far from convinced that the decision makes winning a foreclosure as a bank impossible. According to one attorney involved in the hearing, it simply makes the process fairer. The attorney argued that, in any other hearing, a single person would not be permitted to testify to so many details of a case based on a single affidavit. He calls the bank's foreclosure process a "shortcut."

Bank representatives will not challenge the ruling, but are requesting it be clarified in a second hearing. They worry the ruling could make it difficult to settle hundreds of thousands of foreclosure cases pending in the country.

Source: palmbeachpost.com, "Foreclosure hearing irks banks," Kimberly Miller, Oct. 17, 2011