The chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court has issued a memorandum to all Florida judicial circuits ordering that foreclosure proceedings be open to the public.
Chief Justice Charles T. Canady issued the memo (.pdf) to chief judges of Florida’s 20 judicial circuits to ensure that foreclosure proceedings are not being closed to the public.
Canady wrote that all of the chief judges should make sure court officials and employees are “not violating the rights of Floridians by improperly closing judicial proceedings to the public.”
“No crisis justifies the administrative suspension of the strong legal presumption that state courts are open to the public,” the chief justice wrote.
Canady’s memo came in response to concerns raised by the American Civil Liberties Union and members of the press in Florida that the public had been shut out of certain court foreclosure proceedings, according to an ACLU press release.
