According to a recent article in the Housing Wire, the answer is “yes”!  Traditionally, non-judicial foreclosure has been the approach preferred by California lenders and servicers.  This approach eliminates court oversight of the process, and restricts the rights of homeowners to assert defenses to the foreclosure.  However, abuses of this process by lenders and servicers produced the California Homeowner Bill of Rights.  This law imposed limitations and protections on this process to eliminate dual tracking, robo-signing, and other abuses.

According to this article, seeking to foreclose through judicial foreclosure which utilizes a legal action filed in the state court, eliminates the protections and procedural requirements now in place for non-judicial foreclosure under the HBOR.  To read the full article, see,

Despite the predictions in this article, our Foreclosure Help Center in Santa Clara County has not seen evidence of this trend.  Also, the new federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Regulations offer similar protections to homeowners regardless of whether judicial or nonjudicial foreclosure is utilized.  To read the Housing Wire article, see:http://www.housingwire.com/articles/29663-in-california-a-reversal-of-foreclosure-fortunes