This morning I went to court with my neighbors to see what it was like and to pass out information to my fellow tenants who had been served with past due/eviction notices over the weekend. It was a very interesting experience and I learned some valuable information.
One is, make sure you have all your documents in order before you go, and make sure you have extra copies to hand to the lawyer if he or she requests them. My neighbor did not have any extra copies of his documents and when his lawyer said she wanted to take his documents back to her office and then send him copies back it made for a sticky moment. Because if those papers got lost, or didn't get back to him, he'd be up the creek even worse than he is now. She had some lame excuse why she could not use the copier at the courthouse. I said, isn't there a copy place in town we can use? Oh, no, no, can't do that, either. She did not seem to understand why we did not want to surrender the originals. That did not impress me one bit. She also told him he'd be better off if he just moved out. This is Legal Aid for you. Anyway, she and the park's lawyer and the judge had a little conference and then decided that we should all come back next month.
The second thing I learned is DO NOT SIGN ANY PAPERS! If you do, you will be liable for court costs. Another one of my neighbors broke down under the park's lawyer's pressure (I could not hear what he said to her) and signed papers, not knowing she now had an additional bill to pay.
Being in District Court is not at all like what you see on TV. There was one criminal case which ended up with a bench warrant being issued for the defendant's arrest because he did not show and his lawyer hadn't a clue as to where his client was. The rest were all landlord-tenant cases. There was one from another trailer park. The young woman was behind on her rent because of medical bills and the judge was getting ready to rule in her favor, when the lawyer for that park spoke up and said that her boyfriend had been staying there in violation of the rules since he was not on the lease. Oh, yes, when you live in one of these places you cannot have people in to stay without letting management know. A short visit from someone out of town is one thing, but to have someone regularly come and stay overnight, is another. That is what did her in. She tried to plead that the boyfriend was not there as much as management claimed, but a violation is a violation. The judge let the eviction notice stay. BUT--he and the park lawyer did have some compassion on her. Instead of giving her only 7 days to move her trailer out, they are being generous and giving her 30. She has now learned the hard way about not following the rules. I wish her luck in finding a new place. Those of you who have been following my blog know that finding a place to move your mobile home is not an easy matter even when you have all the time in the world.
Following that case, the judge heard another landlord-tenant case, this one involving an apartment complex. All this must have exhausted him because he announced he was going into chambers. He'd only been there about an hour and a half. So we waited and waited and waited and about 45 minutes later we learned that the rest of the cases from our park had been postponed until next month. In the meantime we talked to the park's lawyer, a nice young man who had just graduated from some junior law school and was working to pay off his student loans. We gave him an earful of what was going on down there and the fact that no one knew who or where the owner was. He said, "I don't know who he is either." We told him, "make sure you get paid! and check the numbers on your paycheck, because these people do not know how to add!" He really sounds like too nice a kid to get mixed up in this slime. Either he will harden up over time or he will find he needs to go into another line of work.
But you really do need to have your wits about you when you are dealing with the legal system because it is like dealing with a machine. They go strictly by the law and they don't care. One of my neighbors--a young woman in her 20's, casually admitted to us while we were waiting that she was careless about keeping her papers. She said, "everyone who knows me knows that." Oh, honey, the sharks are circling. They can smell you coming and they are out for blood. You cannot be careless when dealing with the courts. She'll be another one who caves in to the park's demands or ends up being evicted.
One is, make sure you have all your documents in order before you go, and make sure you have extra copies to hand to the lawyer if he or she requests them. My neighbor did not have any extra copies of his documents and when his lawyer said she wanted to take his documents back to her office and then send him copies back it made for a sticky moment. Because if those papers got lost, or didn't get back to him, he'd be up the creek even worse than he is now. She had some lame excuse why she could not use the copier at the courthouse. I said, isn't there a copy place in town we can use? Oh, no, no, can't do that, either. She did not seem to understand why we did not want to surrender the originals. That did not impress me one bit. She also told him he'd be better off if he just moved out. This is Legal Aid for you. Anyway, she and the park's lawyer and the judge had a little conference and then decided that we should all come back next month.
The second thing I learned is DO NOT SIGN ANY PAPERS! If you do, you will be liable for court costs. Another one of my neighbors broke down under the park's lawyer's pressure (I could not hear what he said to her) and signed papers, not knowing she now had an additional bill to pay.
Being in District Court is not at all like what you see on TV. There was one criminal case which ended up with a bench warrant being issued for the defendant's arrest because he did not show and his lawyer hadn't a clue as to where his client was. The rest were all landlord-tenant cases. There was one from another trailer park. The young woman was behind on her rent because of medical bills and the judge was getting ready to rule in her favor, when the lawyer for that park spoke up and said that her boyfriend had been staying there in violation of the rules since he was not on the lease. Oh, yes, when you live in one of these places you cannot have people in to stay without letting management know. A short visit from someone out of town is one thing, but to have someone regularly come and stay overnight, is another. That is what did her in. She tried to plead that the boyfriend was not there as much as management claimed, but a violation is a violation. The judge let the eviction notice stay. BUT--he and the park lawyer did have some compassion on her. Instead of giving her only 7 days to move her trailer out, they are being generous and giving her 30. She has now learned the hard way about not following the rules. I wish her luck in finding a new place. Those of you who have been following my blog know that finding a place to move your mobile home is not an easy matter even when you have all the time in the world.
Following that case, the judge heard another landlord-tenant case, this one involving an apartment complex. All this must have exhausted him because he announced he was going into chambers. He'd only been there about an hour and a half. So we waited and waited and waited and about 45 minutes later we learned that the rest of the cases from our park had been postponed until next month. In the meantime we talked to the park's lawyer, a nice young man who had just graduated from some junior law school and was working to pay off his student loans. We gave him an earful of what was going on down there and the fact that no one knew who or where the owner was. He said, "I don't know who he is either." We told him, "make sure you get paid! and check the numbers on your paycheck, because these people do not know how to add!" He really sounds like too nice a kid to get mixed up in this slime. Either he will harden up over time or he will find he needs to go into another line of work.
But you really do need to have your wits about you when you are dealing with the legal system because it is like dealing with a machine. They go strictly by the law and they don't care. One of my neighbors--a young woman in her 20's, casually admitted to us while we were waiting that she was careless about keeping her papers. She said, "everyone who knows me knows that." Oh, honey, the sharks are circling. They can smell you coming and they are out for blood. You cannot be careless when dealing with the courts. She'll be another one who caves in to the park's demands or ends up being evicted.
