New foreclosure cases in Hawaii fell in August, reflecting a second consecutive monthly decline after a law enacted in June instituted new rules for lenders seeking to repossess homes from owners behind on mortgage payments.

The state Judiciary reported that 58 new cases were filed statewide last month, an 82 percent decline from 321 cases in August 2011.

Last month’s figure also was lower than the 74 cases filed in July, and compares with a monthly average of 355 in the 12 months before the new law, Act 182, took effect June 29.

The relatively few filings suggest that lenders haven’t adjusted to new requirements the law imposes, such as a written statement from attorneys affirming the accuracy of all documents submitted by lenders in foreclosure cases.

The slowdown was expected, and some local attorneys predict that a more normal volume of foreclosure cases will resume once lenders adopt new procedures.

What is more difficult to predict is how fast or slow the process will be to clear a backlog of delinquent home mortgages that accumulated after state lawmakers first overhauled foreclosure procedures in May 2011 through an amendment to state law known as Act 48.

Some homeowner advocates say the overhaul prompted lenders to be more active in resolving mortgage delinquencies without foreclosure through loan modifications, short sales and accepting deeds in lieu of foreclosure.

Struggling Hawaii homeowners also have recently begun to receive relief under a historic settlement between the five largest U.S. mortgage lenders and the state and federal governments.

Results of the settlement included relieving 362 Hawaii homeowners of about $40 million in mortgage debt between March and June, according to the federal Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight.

Hawaii homeowners are due to receive $71 million in benefits from the settlement, but that figure is understated because in many instances lenders get less than $1 of credit for every $1 worth of relief provided.

Of Hawaii’s $71 million, $30 million is slated for principal reduction, $20 million is for other debt relief including loan modifications and short sales, $9.3 million is for refinancing loans and $8.2 million is for mediation and other assistance including credit counseling.

Relief under the settlement with the five lenders — Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., Citi­group Inc. and GMAC Mortgage parent Ally Financial Inc. — may be delivered over three years, though financial incentives encourage lenders to act more quickly.

The combination of settlement relief and other foreclosure-avoidance efforts, as well as a recovering economy and housing market, will undoubtedly affect whether Hawaii foreclosure rates rebound or remain low.

In the months immediately preceding May 2011 and Act 48, new foreclosure cases were running at around 500 per month. After Act 48, volume dropped to about 200 a month because of what industry representatives said was new risk unfairly put on lenders.

Nevertheless, volume had been gradually climbing since June 2011, reaching 458 in June of this year until Act 182 triggered a new drop.

In an effort to provide the most meaningful data on Hawaii foreclosure cases, the Star-Advertiser is no longer reporting monthly Hawaii foreclosure filings tallied by RealtyTrac, which used to be the best available source for Hawaii foreclosure data when lenders primarily filed actions outside court through a nonjudicial process.

Act 48 caused all lender foreclosures to shift into state court, abandoning the nonjudicial process that had been used for the vast majority of cases.

Data from the Judiciary have included all new lender foreclosure cases for more than a year, making meaningful year-over-year comparisons possible, while RealtyTrac’s data has become less accurate.

RealtyTrac has a reporting lag that results in some cases being counted in one month when they were filed in the preceeding month. The company also doesn’t count new cases if a foreclosure previously started out of court, which can be a significant factor since Act 48 canceled many pending nonjudicial foreclosure cases.

RealtyTrac is a California-based real estate research firm that publishes foreclosure data monthly by state.