LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Jefferson District Court has violated the due process rights of hundreds of people facing eviction by giving them inaccurate instructions as to how to access virtual court hearings in which they might be able to stave off a judge’s order to vacate their residence, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.
The Kentucky Equal Justice Center, a nonprofit legal advocacy group for low-income Kentuckians, has asked a federal judge in Louisville to temporarily stop Jefferson County eviction hearings until District Court provides tenants with “accurate and constitutionally adequate notices” regarding remote court hearings.
Jefferson Chief District Judge Annette Karem said she hadn’t seen the lawsuit on Monday and declined to comment.
Judges in Jefferson County, Kentucky’s most populous county, have been conducting eviction cases via Zoom conferences since June.
This morning, @kyequaljustice filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that the Jefferson County District Court is violating the due process rights of people facing eviction in Louisville.It's infuriating and dangerous.Please share.More INFO and ACTION ⤵️#HealthyAtHome? pic.twitter.com/9aQfrZNHxq
— 𝙱𝚎𝚗 𝙲𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚎𝚛 🏡 (@notbencarter) February 1, 2021
While the so-called national moratorium on evictions issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention has been extended until March, that doesn’t mean evictions are automatically stopped.
Tenants still have to show up to their court hearings and invoke the protections offered by the CDC order. If they don’t appear, judges enter an order allowing the landlord to regain possession of the residence in seven days.
The lawsuit filed Monday alleges that Jefferson District Court late last month changed the Zoom credentials – a phone number and access code – for remote eviction court without telling people who had received notices that the information they had been provided was no longer valid.
And, District Court notices mailed with eviction paperwork no longer list the actual Zoom phone number and access code, according to the lawsuit. Instead, they direct tenants to find that information by visiting www.jeffersondistrictcourt.com.
Jefferson District Court no longer lists Zoom credentials for remote eviction hearings in paperwork mailed to tenants, according to a lawsuit …
“Unlike the previous document, the Jefferson District Court provides people facing eviction with no information about how to appear for their Zoom Eviction Hearing and instead assumes a person facing eviction has access to the internet,” the Equal Justice Center says in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed behalf of tenants Toni Floyd and Cheri Nicholson, who were ordered to vacate their homes after missing court hearings due to the incorrect Zoom information. The complaint seeks class-action status to represent all Jefferson County tenants facing eviction.
The lawsuit says 644 tenants are facing eviction hearings in the next two weeks despite not having been provided accurate information about how to appear in the virtual court.
