Tenants who show up for eviction hearings and have legal representation are far more likely to have a result in their favor, according to a study released in January by the Child Poverty Action Lab.
Known as CPAL, the Dallas-based nonprofit has published its latest observational study of Dallas eviction courts, building off a 2022 study, which reveals how important a tenant’s hearing appearance and legal representation are to the judgment outcome.
Sixteen students from SMU’s Dedman School of Law observed 1,277 cases across five Dallas County justice of the peace courts from November 2022 through April 2023, which represent 10.1% percent coverage of all initially scheduled hearings.
During this time, more than 18,485 evictions were filed in Dallas County, an average of 108.7 per day. This represents a 3.2% change over this same period in 2022 and a 117.5% change over the same period in 2021, according to the study.
Judges ruled in favor of landlords in 57% of observed cases and in tenants’ favor only 5% of cases, according to the analysis. Cases were dismissed 21% of the time and abated — or involve a reduction or suspension of rent — 8% of the time, according to the study.
Odds in tenants’ favor increased when tenants appeared or when they had legal representation.
Landlords won 67% of cases when tenants were absent, versus 53% of cases when tenants appeared for their hearing, according to the study.
“We saw that when a tenant appears, their outcomes are better,” said Ashley Flores, chief of housing at CPAL. “When a tenant has legal representation, their outcomes are better. It’s pretty consistent and what you would expect based on the research we know nationally.”
The study found when tenants have legal representation, landlords win eviction judgments 7% of the time, versus 69% of the time if a tenant appears without representation.
Only 25% of tenants in observed hearings had legal representation, although that is a significant increase from 10% in the 2022 study. Flores said the study saw the impact of tenants’ legal help reflected in the diversity of case outcomes.
Legal representation impact
Most tenants facing eviction are doing so for the first time, Flores said, and have a lack of experience with court proceedings and knowledge of the law.
Farwah Raza, a supervising attorney at Legal Aid of Northwest Texas, said judges often go through their own list of questions after the landlord presents his case, leaving tenants to defend themselves as best they can if they lack representation.
“A lot of times that leads to a judgment against the defendant,” Raza said. “People aren’t really familiar with legal defenses.”
No comprehensive nationwide data set exists that allows a comparison with other counties’ eviction outcomes, said Juan Pablo Garnham, communication and policy engagement manager at Eviction Lab.
Eviction Lab is a Princeton University team of researchers, students and website architects who believe that a stable, affordable home is central to human flourishing and economic mobility, according to the lab’s website.
Garnham said it’s a common-sense result for tenants to have better outcomes when a lawyer is present, including having the expertise to negotiate better terms with the landlord.
“We’ve seen reports and anecdotal stories that show, at the end of the day, these legal aid services end up evening up a situation that tends to be pretty imbalanced,” Garnham said.
One legal defense is whether a tenant received the proper notice. Observers confirmed that a notice to vacate was provided to the tenant in 44% of eviction cases.
The notice to vacate is a legally required written document landlords must give tenants at least three days before filing an eviction.
A challenge to increasing more documentation of notices is the absence of a tenant at the eviction hearing, Flores said.
“Judges typically do an automatic default judgment in favor of the landlord without discussing any facts of the case,” Flores said. “If there are cases where tenants aren’t appearing, most likely there’s not any questions being asked.”
Eviction’s impact
Observers found that landlords appeared for 86% of eviction hearings, while tenants appeared only 40% of the time, likely due to renters’ lack of transportation, child care or release from work, according to the CPAL study.
“If you’re working an hourly wage job, you then have to sort of decide ‘Do I take off work and lose wages for those couple of hours to attend my hearing, or do I stay at work because I’m thinking it’s a foregone conclusion?’” Flores said. “There’s sort of that decision-making calculus at play.”
Once evicted, low-income renters often face lasting, harmful outcomes with an increased risk of homelessness, emergency room use and lower life expectancy, according to CPAL and Eviction Lab, which studies nationwide eviction data.
Eviction filing records — even if a tenant ends up winning the case — can also hurt in future housing searches and negatively impact a renter’s credit score if the rent or fees go to collections, according to CPAL.
Evictions disproportionately impact communities of color, with mothers with children most likely to receive a judgment against them, according to CPAL and Eviction Lab data.
