The Florida Rocket Docket Arena Is Where The Strong Survive And The Weak Perish

The Florida rocket docket didn’t exist when I started MFI-Miami in 2008. There were less than 10 attorneys in all of Florida that did foreclosure defense.

In 2011, that number ballooned to over 500. Most of these lawyers were starving title attorneys or estate planners like Neil Garfield. These attorneys had absolutely no experience in mortgage lending or securities law. Many of these unskilled lawyers began clogging the courts with diatribes and asinine legal theories. It also didn’t help that you had Neil Garfield and his protege, convicted felon Carol Asbury ordaining homeowners as “experts” after attending one of Garfield’s four-hour seminars.

Garfield then encouraged them to play lawyer and clog up the courts with asinine conspiracy theories.

Florida Courts Introduce The Rocket Docket To Weed Through Th Foreclosure Overload

Florida courts became overwhelmed. The state recruited retired judges to help with the caseload. They instituted what has been dubbed the “Rocket Docket”.

In a Rocket Docket situation, the lawyers for the foreclosing party and the homeowner and/or their attorney approach the bench. The homeowner gets roughly 3-5 minutes to argue enough of their case. Homeowners need to show they have valid defenses. This weeds out the people with conspiracy theories and people with little or no defenses for not making their payments. The court will bound the file over for trial or order it into some type of mediation.

The Rocket Docket is also what separates the good lawyers from bad lawyers. Bad lawyers have to do the walk of shame like a hungover college girl who just had a drunken one-night stand. They then have to explain to their client how they failed. 

The attorney usually points the finger at the judge and everyone else involved in the case. After all, it’s easier than taking responsibility for not being able to “close the deal”.

MFI-Miami Clients Survive The Florida Rocket Docket

Florida is by far one of the easiest states to fight a foreclosure. It’s apparent that lawyers who complain have never fought foreclosures in other states. Especially in non-judicial states like Michigan and Colorado. Most states have implemented a more draconian version of the Rocket Docket.

MFI-Miami clients survive the Rocket Docket. We help our attorneys construct a compelling argument that can be explained to a judge in under three minutes. We also make the argument so compelling that the judge lets our client’s attorney speak for 5-10 minutes if needed.

First, we examine the file from the lender, public records and the complaint. We make a list of everything wrong with the file. We then wittle down the number of issues to two or three of the most compelling and ones that the judge will understand. Remember, most of these judges aren’t experienced in foreclosure law and they don’t care if the homeowner stays in their house or not. They also don’t have time to hear a homeowner’s personal opinions about MERS being a criminal cartel or other crazy theories the homeowner found trolling Foreclosure Hamlet or Neil Garfield’s Living Lies Blog.

The second step involves having sales skills. Think about it. Lawyers are salespeople. A lawyer’s primary job when they go in front of a judge is to close the deal and the Rocket Docket is like cold calling in sales. If you have ever watched The Wolf Of Wall Street, one of the reasons Jordan Belfort was successful was because he knew how to engage people on the phone long enough to sell them. In cold calling, you have 10 seconds to keep the person on the phone for a minute, you then have one minute to keep the potential client engaged for three minutes in order to close the deal. The Rocket Docket is no different.