As homeowners in Florida and all across the country struggle to manage debt, others are dealing with fears of foreclosure in this tight economy. While government officials scramble to find solutions, nothing has proved to be a good answer.

Few can argue that Florida's foreclosure mediation program has been successful and many are pushing to make substantial changes to the program to make it effective, or end it altogether. Since the Florida Supreme Court implemented the mediation program, it has helped only about 4 percent of homeowners around the state. Currently, Florida courts are backlogged with about 350,000 foreclosures and there are no signs that the backlog will be cleared any time soon. If the program should end, homeowners facing foreclosure will need to turn to proper legal counsel to stop foreclosure on their homes.

Many are now wondering what went wrong with the foreclosure mediation program to cause it to fail so drastically. One report claimed that, in addition to borrowers not feeling that the program was trustworthy, lenders were seldom willing to settle foreclosures. Some also accuse officials involved in the program of not informing the public of the program's features as well as they should have.

Some local officials and attorneys are not convinced that borrowers had anything to do with the program's likely failure at all, instead claiming that the banks were largely to blame. According to one judge, bank representatives assigned to mediation actually had no authority to negotiate a settlement at all, and tracking a foreclosure case following mediation was very difficult.

Source: tampabay.com, "Florida's foreclosure mediation could end," Mark Puente, Oct 25, 2011