Broward courthouse will be closed until next week

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (WSVN) -- Though some had predicted days and others weeks, Broward County court officials are now reporting that it will be at least until the end of the week before the County's main courthouse will be fully open for business after a water pipe broke.

Several people showed up to the courthouse Tuesday morning only to be turned away for a second day after the pipe burst late Sunday night. An estimated 10,000 people show up at the courthouse in just one day, some with time-sensitive issues. "They just told me that they're going to be closed again today," Jennifer Jones said, "so I guess I'll have to come again and take a day off at work."

This half-century old courthouse suffered severe flooding on the first and second floors of the building. Millions of gallons of water fried the phone and the computer system and soaked thousands of important records and court files. "We have 60 million records that we keep here. Thousands of them have been affected," said Broward Clerk of the Courts Howard Forman.

"Not only just the files but we also have a lot of confidential pleadings in envelopes that have been soaked in the water," said Kris Mazzeo, Chief Director of the Circuit Court's Civil Division, "so what's going to happen is the County will bring a company in, and what they do is they go through here, and they dry them and they sanitize them. They use chemicals on them. They try to keep and restore the files that they can. Some of them will be absolutely ruined."

On Feb. 15, the main courthouse had to evacuate everyone in the building after a backed up sewage pipe caused a wet mess.

Miles B. Schlam was just one of many lawyers affected by the flooding. "Some of the courts are going to be feeling this backlog, but we'll get through it," he said.

Dane Stafford fears he might lose his home due to the closing. "I'm here to put the paperwork in to stop an eviction," he said.

The court did emphasize that it will take into consideration the closing for any cases affected by the delay of opening its doors. The only court still in session is bond court.

(Copyright 2008 by Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)