Florida's court system has frozen hiring and is bracing for possible staff furloughs due to a $72.3 million deficit blamed on a shortfall in filing fees after mortgage foreclosure cases dramatically declined.
In 2009 the Florida Legislature increased fees and funneled them into a trust fund to pay for most of the court system's expenses. The trust fund was expected to cover $370 million of the $462 million court system budget.
Most of the fees -- $293.7 million -- were expected to come from foreclosure filings, but they've dropped well below that estimate due to self-imposed moratoriums by many lenders over such issues as lost paperwork and erroneous filings.
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