Will County homeowners facing foreclosure may soon get help from the courts.

Will Court has launched mandatory mediation court – a process that will bring mortgage companies and borrowers to the table, along with the third-party mediation specialist in hopes of working out a deal that will keep owners in their homes, and alleviate the backlog of foreclosures streaming into the system.

Will County has a rate of foreclosure as high as any other area in the state. From June 2008 to June 2009, there were 5,541 foreclosures filed in Will County, and that number is increasing, according to Will County Chief Judge Gerald Kinney. As a result Kinney is launching a local program along with the help of Illinois Supreme Court Justice Thomas L. Kilbride.

“We hope that both lenders and borrowers will work together to be able to keep people in their homes,” said Justice Kilbride. “It’s really an attempt to try to solve these cases on the docket and not spend any taxpayers money doing it.”

About 2,700 and 3,000 cases are expected to take part in mediation each year.

The program works like this.

When a bank files a notice of forclosure the county’s sheriff serves court papers to property owner. Well now along with those papers, owners will also receive information about meditation court. And a date for mediation will be set automatically. The owner is not required to apply.

The program is mandatory, because the court wants the process to be effective, said Joseph Tybor, a spokesman for the Illinois Supreme Court.

And if the lender does not appear for mediation, the case can be dismissed and sanctions may be filed against the company; and should the lender wish to reopen the case they will have to re-file the foreclosure and be required to pay an additional filing fee. And mediation will still be required. If the homeowner fails to appear their case will proceed through the foreclosure process.

During mediation it will be determined if a homeowner qualifies for a federal modification loan program. If the property owner does not qualify the mediator will work with both parties to reach some kind of agreement. And the outcome will vary depending on the circumstances, said Tybor. For instance a homeowners may agree to “consent foreclosure” where they surrender the deed to the bank and walk away without owing anything on the property. Which can be a positive, because in the current housing market numbers of properties have depreciated in values, and there are many instances where a person goes through foreclosure and are still indebted to the bank.

“Not only can people lose their homes, they can lose their homes and still owe the bank,” said Tybor. “And not everybody is going to be able to keep their home, but hopefully this will let homeowners know what their options are,” he added.

The system is expected to work with a list of qualified mediators, who are either retired judges or attorneys with a minimum of five years experience in the mortgage foreclosure field. Mediators will be paid $150 for each file. To finance the program, the state court has authorized an increase in the filing fees paid by a plaintiff or mortgage holder for all foreclosures in the judicial circuit from $276 to $426.

“This is a new program, and it’s an innovative way to do it without a lot of government bureaucracy,” said Kinney. “The lenders are going to have to pay a bit more in filing fees but in the long run it’s far less expensive and less risky for them, and more beneficial to neighborhood communities.”

Cook County has a similar program.