There’s an article today from Chicago Tribune about the volume of foreclosures in Cook County, IL and the toll it takes on the judges who handle the increasing amount of foreclosures.

Judge Clifford Meacham states:

“I know that money is important, and I really understand that banks are entitled to repossess homes. But that doesn’t mean that personally I have to like it,” said Meacham, who will retire next month after about 20 years on the bench.

Meacham acknowledged that his decision to retire comes at least in part from the cumulative impact of so many foreclosures during the past few years.

Over many years, I’ve had conversations with people I work with about what we do, and whether there should be any emotions allowed when dealing with distressed property.  It’s pretty easy to make the concious decision that nothing we did caused the problem and nothing we did made the problem worse, it’s just a matter of a certain property being available at a certain price.  It’s a little more intimate, however, when you end up sifting through the wreckage of someone’s life, trying to decide the significance of children’s toys and photos that have been left behind.

I empathize with the judges who have to make the daily decisions, because it’s not so easy to just say it’s my job, or that’s what I do.  I see their role as something like an emergency room doctor, only in their case most of the patients don’t make it out in better shape than they came in.  Tough role to play.