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Tens of thousands of Californians may forced out of their homes by Labor Day. A tsunami of evictions has been held at bay only by an obscure procedural decision made by the Chief Justice of the CA Supreme Court. Today she announced that the protections could be gone by August 14.
Not only has this horrifying news not made headlines, the news of this potential tidal wave of evictions is buried at the end of the Judicial Council's own press release. It's time for @GavinNewsom and the legislature to step up and protect Californians. https://newsroom.courts.ca.gov/news/judicial-council-to-distribute-trial-court-funds-based-on-workload-need
The Court's de facto moratorium was never a true solution but it's ludicrous that the Chief Justice would decide that this is the right time to create more chaos. https://www.newsweek.com/california-breaks-daily-coronavirus-death-record-two-days-row-1520421
Basically, landlords have been able to file eviction cases with their local courts but the Judicial Council rule prevented courts from then sending out the "summons" to start the clock on the case running. This has created all kinds of confusion like this. https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/local/2020/07/21/ventura-county-renters-receive-notices-during-covid-19-eviction-ban/5388100002/
Many courts have still be sending them a letter that say "Notice You Have Been Sued" without sending the actual Summons and Complaint (the document that actually explains what the landlord is claiming you did). If you think this is confusing legal nonsense you would be correct!
So basically there are unknown thousands of eviction cases *already filed* with county courts and as soon the protections from the Judicial Council end they will be mailed out all at once. So when I talk about a massive, crashing wave of evictions, I'm being quite literal.
Even during normal times legal aid organizations often have to turn away people who need representation in eviction cases, when this wave hits there will simply not be representation for vast majority of people who need it and injustice will compound.
Savvy people representing themselves will exercise their right to trial and get assigned trial dates months in the future. This could keep them in their houses much longer but overloaded judges will bully people without legal representation into making deals.
The Judicial Council is an unelected administrative body loosely controlled by the California Chief Justice. They should never have been making such important policy decisions. @GavinNewsom and the legislature need to take quick action to a tsunami of evictions before Labor Day.
Anyway, if you made it this far can you RT this thread? This still hasn't hit the news and without a massive public push I have no faith that Newsom will do the right thing.
