Richmond Courts Unfair To The Poor

Richmond Courts Unfair To The Poor
Eviction Defense Center Speaks Out

By Lynda Carson December 19, 2005

The people of Richmond CA., want to believe that their constitutional rights are upheld by the role of the courts, including the right of poor people to have access to a jury trial.

Instead, low-income tenants have found that their constitutional rights are being trampled upon in the Richmond courts, and people have united to speak out against such injustices.

Queen Jackson, a tenant defending her own eviction case, is not the first person to feel like she was taken for a ride by the courts of Richmond, after the judge stripped her of her right to a jury trial when it became apparrent that she was representing herself.

"I walked out of that courtroom feeling so small", said Queen Jackson. "I felt like the judge and the lawyer evicting me were friends. The whole thing was so unfair, but it happened so fast, and I did'nt know what to say. They really took advantage of me."

"It was Judge Berger that screwed me," Jackson said, "by telling me that my papers were not filed on time, which was not true."

Queen Jackson is the mother of five children, and has lived in the same residence in Richmond for the past fifteen years, until she was forced to defend herself from an unlawful eviction after her residence faced foreclosure.

"Judge Berger is a very unfair person who does not give a damn about black people," said Jackson. "When I was in court, there was nothing but black people and hispanics' there facing eviction, and the judge definitely let us all know that he cared more for his wealthy friends who were evicting us, than he did about making sure that we had a fair hearing in court."

According to the Eviction Defense Center (EDC), a nonprofit law firm of Oakland CA., "the judge cited a local rule as grounds for taking the jury trial away from Ms. Jackson, despite having been reversed 2 weeks earlier by an Appellate Court for doing exactly the same thing to another eviction Defendant."

Anne Omura, Executive Director of the EDC, says, "It is very disturbing to see how often that tenants facing eviction are not being treated fairly in the courts when they try to defend themselves."

Year after year the Richmond courts have engaged in a pattern and practice of denying poor people who are defending themselves in court from eviction, their constitutional right to a trial by jury, says the EDC in a recent Press Release.

"These practices have gone largely unnoticed because of the class of people victimized: poor legally unsophisticated tenants facing eviction from their homes."

Unfortunately, most of these victims lack the resources or know how to fight the improper rulings of the judges. Because of the fast track procedure of eviction through the courts, tenants do not have the time to challenge the improper rulings when they occur, and the result is that the system is biased in favor of landlords.

"We have observed several instances where we believe that indigent clients in pro per were unable to pursue their constitutional right to trial by jury because of a possible misunderstanding by the local court," said, Monique Doryland of the Contra Costa County, Bay Area Legal Aid.

It's no secret that non profit legal service providers have felt frustrated for many years by these injustices occurring in the courts, because they lack the resources to challenge the judicial system when it's at it's worst.

Fortunately for local tenants, action is being taken to bring an end to these unlawful practices against the poor. Oakland's Eviction Defense Center has begun to partner up with local law firms that are willing to take cases pro bono, as a way to help these victims get a fair hearing in the courts. As a result, recently two writs have already been granted against the Richmond Superior Court for denying poor people their right to a trial by jury.

"The abuse of the Richmond court is so rampant," says Anne Tamiko Omura of the Eviction Defense Center, "we anticipate that there will be plenty more opportunites to file writs."

Theres numerous ways that the judges of Richmond unfairly deny poor people their right to a trial by jury, which are all contrary to procedures mandating the ways in which a jury trial may be waived.

According to the EDC, "Judges improperly deny fee waivers, improperly rely on local rules, or simply refuse to act on timely filed demands for jury trial."

"Our organization has been fighting the Richmond courthouse over these issues for years," says Anne Omura of the EDC.

Attorney's of the East Bay Tenants Bar Association have been experiencing the same problems in Richmond. "Clearly a local rule should never trump the constitution. Unfortunately, for the clients that we serve, the local Superior Court is the Supreme Court for them, because they do not have the time or resources to appeal bad decisions," said local tenant attorney Roxanne Romell.

According to Jorge Aguilar, an attorney with the Eviction Defense Center, he estimates that there are litterally hundreds of victims of these improper judicial tactics. "If the judges in Richmond think they are saving time by taking away jury trials from the poor, they should think again," said Aguilar.

Omura and Aguilar say they are determined to maintain the pressure on the Richmond courts. "Our goal is to keep filing writs until these improper practices end," said Aguilar.

As for Queen Jackson, her unlawful eviction was eventually dismissed with the help of the Eviction Defense Center and Cooley Godward LLP which took her case, and she was able to get enough time to relocate her family to a nicer neighborhood in Pinole.

The Eviction Defense Center may be reached at; 510/452-4541

Lynda Carson may be reached at; tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com