Dismissed: How Rent Courts Process and Punish Low-Income Tenants in Washington, DC
Creator
Fleming-Klink, Isaiah
Abstract
Drawing from a year of ethnographic fieldwork in court, long-form interviews with tenants outside court, case law review, and a preliminary analysis of administrative court records, this research examines the central institution in Washington, DC’s eviction landscape: Landlord-Tenant Court (LTB). Each year, more than 30,000 cases are filed in LTB, and the court is tasked with processing each case—to varying degrees and through various mechanisms. I find that rather than providing an environment in which adjudication of the law unfolds neutrally, LTB is structured in such a way that prevents tenants from fully realizing their rights and, thus, in a way that disadvantages tenants irrespective of the merits or claims of their case. Specifically, the court’s procedures burden tenants and favor landlords; opportunity costs associated with court compliance pressure tenants into waiving rights and resources and not showing up in court; and the proximity of landlord attorneys to the court and its staff creates an underlying deferral to the interests of landlords.
Description
Culture and Politics, Walsh School of Foreign Service
Permanent Link
http://hdl.handle.net/10822/1054111Date Published
2019-04-15Type
Collections
Metadata
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