Eviction Diversion & Civil Gideon

This Thursday, the 55th District Court in Mason, Michigan will call its Landlord-Tenant docket as it does each Thursday afternoon. There are 65 cases on the docket. Sixty Five tenants sued for possession under the laws of Michigan.

Our Housing Law Clinic at the Michigan State University College of Law will be there as well. Similar to other programs in Washington D.C. and other cities where law students represents consumers in housing matters, the Housing Law Clinic students come to court and represent the consumers before the court. Our clinic has been a partner with the District Court and the Michigan Department of Human Services for 4 years now. It is an idea that began when the city of Kalamazoo began a pilot program called the Eviction Diversion Program that set the tone for this path to more due process for low income residents in Michigan. Tenants, in some courts, would have lawyers in housing matters, and could avoid judgments and imminent eviction. DHS also provides some financial assistance to consumers who wanted to save their tenancies. 

The key to it all is cooperation between the court, the government, attorneys for property owners (and some property owners) Legal Services of South Central Michigan and our law school clinic. The judges of the court respect the right to counsel, would like to see due process occur in the legal system, and do not want to be the pipeline to homelessness.  MSU law students, eager to learn their profession, and even more interested in getting comfortable before courts, are engaged and are drawn to the program more and more each year. 

So on Thursday, our clinic will likely has 10-12 lawyers and clinicians ready to assist Michiganders. Legal Services of South Central Michigan will provide another 4 lawyers to assist. Considering that approximately half the tenants will appear (that is the average), any tenant wanting legal representation can have one. Just like criminal defendants who are charged with crimes each day. It is not a constitutional right yet (though it should be) but this is a small step towards a Civil Gideon.

As a result of the great example set by Kalamazoo, the Eviction Diversion Program has spread to other courts in Michigan, as it should. There was an attempt to implement the program in Eaton County District Court but it fell apart at some point. I was there on a few occasions and some of the lawyers for landlords complained angrily of the fact that tenants had lawyers now. Imagine. A lawyer complaining that someone has counsel ! It was one of the low moments in all of my experiences as a lawyer.

But overall, the Eviction Diversion Program has been mostly a positive experience. This past week, I received two inquiries from other jurisdictions in Michigan who want to do something similar in their courts on the landlord-tenant docket and would like some tips. Members of the program at the Mason Court also met with representatives from out of state (at their request) about starting a similar effort in their city.  This has been the norm so far; the negative experiences hardly outweigh this community commitment to equal justice way under the radar.