Last year, I started going to DC eviction court and was shocked by how many tenants lost their cases simply because they didn't show up. I started trying to understand why, and the answer was much stranger & more disturbing than I imagined. https://dcist.com/story/20/10/05/thousands-of-d-c-renters-are-evicted-every-year-do-they-all-know-to-show-up-to-court/

Tenants find out about their eviction cases in D.C. through private process servers, who are paid by landlords or their lawyers. And one man has come to dominate the process service industry in D.C.—Karl Stephens, operating out of his home in Silver Spring.

I read through thousands of cases involving Stephens and his associate Matthew Buck. And there was immediately a striking difference from most of their competitors: despite having tenants' addresses, they claim they are basically never able to find them home.

Because they can almost never find tenants, they say they leave summonses at their door and send them through the mail. But the only evidence they actually do this are sworn affidavits they file in court—and I found hundreds of cases where these affidavits are demonstrably false.

One day, I noticed that Stephens had gotten a DWI and had to go to court in Maryland. That did not stop him—I decided to follow along, and he claimed to serve 16 tenants miles away in D.C. while I was sitting in the room with him. (They weren't home, he later told the court).

This problem is common enough nationally that there's a word for it—sewer service. And reports of sewer service in D.C. eviction cases date back decades, but no one's ever done anything about it. Here's the front page of the Washington Post in 1973. Looks familiar.

And the result for tenants can be surprise evictions. Tenants in DC have a LOT of rights if they come to court; but if they don't come, they can become homeless because of a case they didn't even know about until well after they'd already lost it.

It's a devastating problem, and unlike many of the ways our society can leave people out to dry, this one has a relatively easy fix. People have been saying that for at least 50 years in D.C. And for 50 years, there's not been the political will to fix it.

Also, it's crucial to note the way the way eviction judges treat tenants about to lose their homes. The day Joe Gelletich was scheduled to be evicted, he went to court because a previous judge had told him his eviction couldn't be scheduled that early. Instead, this happened: