The fallout from the Great Recession put a tremendous amount of pressure on our foreclosure courts. The biggest failure of our judiciary, and something that needs to be discussed and reviewed in light of what is likely about to come, was the unconstitutional denial of jury trials to homeowners.

I have been practicing consumer rights law, and foreclosure in particular, for 13 years. With one exception, in an unpublished Appellate Division decision [Genid v. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., No. A-2570-14T2, 2016 N.J. Super. Unpub. LEXIS 2636 (App. Div. Dec. 12, 2016)], erroneously rejected by later full panels [Adelman v. BSI Fin. Servs., 453 N.J. Super. 31 (App. Div. 2018) and others following], no courts honor the borrower’s right to a jury trial.

The right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate; but the legislature may authorize the trial of civil causes by a jury of six persons. The legislature may provide that in any civil cause a verdict may be rendered by not less than five-sixths of the jury. The Legislature may authorize the trial of the issue of mental incompetency without a jury.

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