New foreclosure cases filed in Ohio courts continued to climb in 2007, according to the latest Ohio Courts Summary released Friday by the Ohio Supreme Court, but local numbers went against the trend, dropping in both Trumbull and Mahoning counties.
Across the state of Ohio, general division courts of common pleas saw a 5 percent increase in foreclosure cases — a total of 83,230 new filings — in 2007, and a 280 percent increase since 1997.
In Trumbull County, however, foreclosures showed a slight decline with 1,526 filed last year, compared to 1,560 in 2006.
Still, like state figures, Trumbull’s foreclosures have leaped since 1997, when just 443 were filed.
That was the first year the Clerk of Courts Office charted the specific civil lawsuit filing. The 443 cases represent about 17 percent of the total lawsuits filed in 1997.
By 2002, Trumbull foreclosures totaled 1,253, or more than 40 percent of the 2,965 lawsuits filed.
Since that time, local lawyers have described the foreclosure process as a factory assembly line, blaming the economy, jobless rate and predatory lenders for the problem.
Chris Davey, a spokesman for the Ohio Supreme Court on Friday pointed to a coordinated effort to help citizens through the foreclosure process.
‘‘A governor’s task force brought everything under the Save the Dream foreclosure prevention program. A model mediation program is now being used by several common pleas courts to help people remain in their homes,’’ Davey said.
The 11-step model program includes processes, forms and other documents, focuses on residential foreclosure cases and contains options to enable courts to made modifications based on available mediation resources while also meeting the needs of their communities, according to Davey.
‘‘There is a Web site, hotline and an advertising campaign all underway,’’ he said.
cbobby@tribtoday.com
