Agents And Rent Court: A Dynamic Duo
By: Bethany Straus
If you spend multiple days in courtroom 2 of the Maryland District Court of Baltimore City, you will surely notice some familiar faces: bailiffs, clerks, judges, a few attorneys, and a handful of agents. Seeing as their job is rooted in the courthouse and its proceedings, it is to be expected that these individuals are not uncomfortable in this setting.
It is quite common for employees of the court (such as bailiffs, clerks, and judges) to be familiar and therefore friendly with each other. After all, these are coworkers that have many shared experiences of working with a wide variety of people and cases that come through the rent court. Therefore, conversations and lighthearted exchanges between clerks and bailiffs are to be expected.
In addition to the clerks and bailiffs, who are quite comfortable in this setting, are the agents who regularly appear in rent court on behalf of the landlords. Many agents appear in rent court multiple times a week and are clearly quite familiar with the court, its proceedings, and its employees.
However, there is a major difference between being comfortable and being chummy.
On numerous occasions, I have witnessed agents hold friendly conversations with clerks – with topics ranging from simple discussions of the weather, to agents playfully pleading for their cases to be moved to the top of the docket so they could go home sooner.
On one occasion, I heard an agent loudly complain about how he just wanted to leave so he could go swimming in his pool; the agent then proceeded to jokingly insist that the clerks should join them (to which the clerk responded that they would not be doing because they had their own pool to swim in).
Although this practice is not in violation of the rules or proceedings of the court, it can be extremely off-putting to the tenants being called to appear in rent court who have no experience with such a system.
Imagine, if you will, being a tenant in rent court.
You have just checked in with the clerk, who said only a few words to you and then ushered you aside to keep the line of tenants moving.
You take a seat among strangers and wait for the judge to enter, meanwhile the clerks are finishing with the check-in process and are talking and laughing among themselves.
As you look around, you see a number of people like you – sitting quietly and nervously, knowing that your home is in the hands of other people. You see tenants and landlords sitting together silently, reviewing their documents and mentally preparing to explain themselves to the judge.
In addition to the tenants and landlords seated in the wooden benches all around you, you suddenly see a row of wooden armchairs along the right wall of the courtroom; sitting in these chairs is a group of well-dressed individuals, the majority of whom are white men in suits with briefcases at their sides.
As you sit silently and listen to the announcements being made by attorneys and bailiffs, the group seated in armchairs seem to have almost separated themselves from the rest of the courtroom and are talking loudly with each other; some even strike up conversations with the clerks and bailiffs, speaking to them as though they know each other personally.
Eventually, the judge enters the courtroom and begins the rent court proceedings. The clerk sitting beside the judge begins calling case numbers.
You hear the clerk list your case number and address, so you walk to the front of the courtroom to the table labeled “Tenant” in front of the judge. You look to your right and expect to see your landlord, but instead you see one of the well-dressed people who was just sitting in the wooden armchairs.
The person testifying that you owe money was having a friendly conversation with the clerks just ten minutes ago. Now, instead of discussing the weather and laughing about needing a break, the agent details to the court how much money you owe for the property you rent from their client.
Although this chummy relationship between agents and employees of the court will not be dictating how the judge rules on the cases coming before them, the relationship is rather telling of systemic power imbalance that tenants face in trying to avoid eviction. While tenants feel confused and looked down upon, agents seem rather comfortable and unbothered.
To make matters worse, one can easily tell what the agents think about a tenant or a case by simply watching their reactions.
During the morning docket on July 2nd, a couple asked the judge if they could pay their rent to escrow – a common request. Immediately, the agents turned to each other with furrowed brows and began murmuring among themselves.
I don’t believe that their openly dramatic response had a direct impact on the judge’s ruling on the tenants’ request, but any tenants who witnessed this display could easily be discouraged from making the same request themselves.
This is not to say that agents should feel uncomfortable or unwelcome in the courtroom, but rather that the scales should be balanced. Tenants should have the right to representation by an attorney or paralegal without charge for low and moderate income families. The right to counsel allows a tenant to enjoy the same insider advantage as as agent as the tenant attempts to navigate a complex, intimidating judicial process in an attempt to avoid a potentially life-altering eviction.