Eviction hearings in Cook County courtrooms happen in the blink of an eye. According to legal observers and court-watching reports, tenants frequently show up to their first court date unaware that the fate of their housing may be decided immediately. And though the circuit court doesn’t publicly report statistics on the some 30,000 eviction cases filed countywide each year, legal advocates have long observed that tenants almost never have lawyers.
As we have explained before, an outcome in favor of a tenant in eviction court usually means that the case is dismissed. Landlords win when they’re granted possession of the property, and sometimes money owed by the tenant. While judges often give the plaintiff-landlord permission to bring a dismissed case against a particular tenant-defendant back into court at a future date, legal advocates consider it a win for tenants anytime they are allowed to stay in the unit.
But a lack of legal representation in eviction court isn’t the only hurdle Chicago tenants face when fighting displacement. Cook County circuit court doesn’t have court reporters or recording equipment in eviction courtrooms, making appeals all but impossible. Tenants can also be forced out informally, through the illegal practice of lockouts and other types of pressure such as astronomical rent spikes and lapses in maintenance. In gentrifying neighborhoods, tenants have reported retaliation from landlords when they try to assert their rights under the local Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance, which allows them to withhold rent for landlords’ failure to maintain properties.
