Indiana Marion County Passed Local Rule on Foreclosure Cases

The Marion County Indiana Circuit and Superior courts (Indianapolis metropolitan area) passed a local rule, LR49-TR 85 Rule 231, effective in March 2009. The Rule requires that settlement conferences be held between the primary borrower and primary lender in all owner-occupied housing foreclosure cases.
Rule Summary
Foreclosure proceedings will be automatically stayed for 90 days, effective once the case is filed, except for proceeding with service, unless the conference is vacated for good cause.
Once service has been made and confirmed, the court will send out the settlement conference notice to the lender and borrower.
The borrower must respond to the court within 15 days of receipt of the notice to confirm they will be attending the conference. If the court does not receive the confirmation, the conference will be waived.
Both the lender and a representative of the lender who has settlement authority, as well as the borrower, may attend the conference in person or by phone.
The borrower must provide the lender's counsel with the borrower's financial information (7) seven days prior to the conference.
Lender's counsel must provide a written report on the conference results to the court within (5) five days of the conference. If no conference was held, lender's counsel must file a statement explaining the reasons that the conference was not held.
Upon notice, the lender needs to make a loan officer available by phone for each conference.
If the conference is not held within 90 days after service is confirmed, or if the borrower fails to appear for the conference, foreclosure may proceed
The immediate impact of this rule will be to delay foreclosure proceedings, unless the settlement conference is waived.