CBA Record October 2018

PRO BONOWEEK 2018– CELEBRATING THE POWER OF PRO BONO

cases. An attorney approaches the judge’s bench with a large stack of manila files. Each case is resolved in a matter of seconds: appoint special process server, ex parte eviction order, eviction order. Landlord attorneys are simultaneously whispering names. After one tenant with a cane hears their name, they stand up and start to squeeze past the others on the bench. A landlord attorney holds up a finger and says, “One moment.” The attorney turns their back on the tenant and continues to call out names, identifying the rest of the tenants they need to speak to. The attorney and the tenant with the cane disappear into the conference room. A few minutes later, after speaking with six tenants, the attorney informs the clerk that they are ready. The tenant with the cane is up first. The attorney immediately starts talking, while handing a signed agreement up to the judge. The tenant interjects to explain that the landlord never fixes anything, while listing various problems with the apart- ment. The judge interrupts and holds up the order, “Aren’t you agreeing to move?” The tenant sheepishly nods but explains that they just don’t want the eviction to be on their record. The attorney pipes in and reminds the tenant that this is the landlord’s only offer. The judge persuades, telling the tenant “It’s a good deal.” The tenant with the cane, who is holding a small stack of printed pictures they had hoped to show the judge, relents and agrees to move. The tenant is still standing there, unsure what to do, when the judge moves on to the next case. This is one case. But it could be any of the 50 to 60 cases called in a Chicago eviction courtroom on any single day. To the tenant, it may feel overwhelming, incomplete, arbitrary. But it’s the reality of an overburdened system that must process 25,000 eviction cases in Chicago every year. The power differential between landlords and tenants is apparent to even the most casual observer; a recent study by the Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing (LCBH) and Housing Action Illinois found that over the last several

ADDRESSING THE HIDDEN IMPACT OF EVICTIONS Wednesday, October 24, 12:00-2:00 pm Ropes & Gray LLP, 191 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago More than 25,000 eviction cases are filed every year in Cook County.What does that mean, and what is the impact on families and neighborhoods? As MatthewDesmond’s book Evictedmakes clear, eviction is both a cause and a symptomof poverty, and the consequences of an eviction can be long lasting and far-reaching, negatively affecting a family’s health, education, and employment, while destabilizing neighborhoods and schools. Learn how legal aid advocates in Chicago work to reduce the negative consequences of eviction and homelessness, and how you can help. 1.5 hours of CLE credit subject to approval. Learn more/register at chicagobarfoundation.org/probonoweek.

years, 81% of landlords had representation, while only 12% of tenants did. This imbal- ance changes the system, resulting in the standardization of practices that can seem unfair or opaque, the silencing of tenants whose defenses may remain unsaid, and the displacement of thousands of families every year. Renters with attorneys experience radi- cally different results in eviction court. In a preliminary analysis of court records from 2014 to 2017, LCBH determined that 36% of unrepresented tenants were evicted during their very first court date, an outcome that is nearly eliminated— just 3%—when a tenant has an attorney. Renters with an attorney are also 80% more likely to have their case dismissed than those without. The importance of an attorney in eviction court cannot be over- stated. And with more low-income renter families needing legal assistance than there are legal aid attorneys available, pro bono engagement can mean all of the difference. Helping tenants achieve a better out- come in eviction court—one that will have a significant effect on their lives—can be a relatively simple undertaking. Like the tenant above, many tenants walk into court and feel pressured into a negotiation with their landlord or their landlord’s attorney, an experience that can be fraught with pres- sure and confusion. Tenants will often sign agreements that offer them little benefit and include terminology they don’t under-

stand, putting them at risk of an immedi- ate eviction if they don’t comply with the terms (usually to move out or to pay a large sum of money in as little as a week). Even tenants with defenses that could stop the eviction or reduce the money owed sign such agreements, struggling to articulate their defenses in the quickly moving setting of the eviction courtroom. An attorney can completely change that dynamic. In one case, a pro se tenant was about to agree to be evicted and to have a money judgment entered against them, even though they had the money to pay the back rent. The tenant instead sought legal assistance, and by the next court date, the attorney had negotiated a settlement where the landlord agreed to dismiss the case if the tenant paid the rent they owed. Instead of becoming homeless, the tenant was able to stay in the apartment for the remainder of the lease—an additional five months. Attorneys also play a critical role in assisting tenants who have a defense to their eviction case. Tenants will often complain of substandard living conditions, such as mold and mildew, rodent and insect infestations, no heat during a Chicago winter, or sewage regularly flooding their apartment (a real—and disgusting—hous- ing condition an LCBH client endured for several months). What they may not realize is that a landlord’s failure to make repairs keep a property in habitability violates their obligations under the Chicago Residential

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