The exercise of judicial discretion in rent arrears cases - Sheffield ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

A further concern is that in busy courts, it is impossible for judges who grant an application to suspend, or who adjourn it, or fix a date for review, to reserve the file to themselves. This led to judges being “more likely to start again, take a step back” (DJ C). The likelihood that cases listed for review would return to the same district judge was said to be “the great advantage of sitting in a small court” (DJ M). DJ K expressed the view that: “It’s obviously easier for judges to deal with cases that they already know about, so judicial continuity is very helpful in that respect. […] If it’s not one of your cases, then you are having to rely on somebody else’s notes and they may vary…” Another interviewee complained that deputy district judges were reluctant to: “grasp the nettle. From their point of view also, it doesn’t matter much, because they’re not going to be here tomorrow, are they?” (DJ G) Conclusion District judges found it challenging to exercise their discretion in applications to suspend warrants, being acutely aware that their decision would have an immediate impact on the tenant’s life, and that of any family members. Although a number of factors were likely to be consistently taken into account by all judges interviewed, most particularly the presence of children in the household, their responses to the scenarios varied considerably. Applications to suspend warrants were also the type of case which prompted many judges to directly address the tenant in a direct and interventionist manner, referring them to sources of advice and warning them that this was their ‘last chance’ to remain in their home. Issues of consistency and fairness caused some concern to judges themselves in these cases, particularly where district judges did not have the full case file, and where they had to rely on a colleague’s notes of what had influenced a previous decision to suspend the warrant. 101
Chapter 9: Conclusions Where the law gives judges a wide-ranging discretion as in housing possession cases, it is inevitable that there will be issues as to how consistently such discretion is exercised. As illustrated in Chapter 6, housing possession cases involve judges making decisions about a key aspect of people’s lives and judgements about their ability and willingness to pay rent in the future which are necessarily to a certain extent speculative. In these circumstances, unless rigid criteria are set out which leave no room for individual decision-making, there will inevitably be differences in the way judges approach cases. A summary of the findings This research showed that there were different patterns of decisions both between courts and between individual judges in courts. Various possible explanations for the variations between courts were explored: differences between courts in levels of arrears; the familiarity which claimants have with their local district judge, leading to a tailoring of orders sought which they know the judge is likely to grant; the prevalence of housing benefit problems; attendance by the defendant at court; the availability of housing advice for defendants, both in the community and at court. It is not possible to show the different weight these factors have, but all are likely to play a part in the differences observed. These factors may lead to the development of a particular court culture, possibly also affected by procedural factors, such as pressures on listing and the use of pro formas developed by each court. There was also considerable variation between individual judges’ decisions. The qualitative data from interviews with district judges sought to examine whether any of the following factors could explain these differences: length of experience; type of legal practice before appointment; attitudes to training and updating. No clear patterns emerged, however. 102
Page 1 and 2:
The exercise of judicial discretion
Page 3 and 4:
The Research Unit, Department for C
Page 6 and 7:
Contents Executive summary i Chapte
Page 8 and 9:
Executive summary The research ques
Page 10 and 11:
the shift to housing officers appea
Page 12:
Conclusions A wide and diverse rang
Page 15 and 16:
on the role of judges under the exi
Page 17 and 18:
Northern 1 court hears over 1500 ho
Page 19 and 20:
significance to a particular respon
Page 21 and 22:
The application may be adjourned; t
Page 23 and 24:
such forms are completed in less th
Page 25 and 26:
In November 2001, the Legal Service
Page 27 and 28:
Levels of arrears Although the reas
Page 29 and 30:
Table 2: Rent levels from ODPM stat
Page 31 and 32:
Table 5: Changes in outcomes of ini
Page 33 and 34:
Table 6: Impact of participation on
Page 35 and 36:
The focus group participants consid
Page 37 and 38:
consideration in this chapter, the
Page 39 and 40:
Neither of the judges seemed to con
Page 41 and 42:
chambers, where the possession list
Page 43 and 44:
Most of the district judges felt th
Page 45 and 46:
The views of the claimants’ group
Page 47 and 48:
Qualitative and quantitative data f
Page 49 and 50:
anything to say, and wants to stay
Page 51 and 52:
Table 7: Sources of training and up
Page 53 and 54:
sought with what they know the judg
Page 55 and 56:
Chapter 5: Judges and landlords Int
Page 57 and 58:
Chart 7: Orders granted by requests
Page 59 and 60:
some unevenness in the impact of re
Page 61 and 62:
Thus it can be seen that the type o
Page 63 and 64: District judges differed on how muc
Page 65 and 66: There were three other, more genera
Page 67 and 68: Conclusions In this chapter, we hav
Page 69 and 70: Chapter 6: Judges and tenants Intro
Page 71 and 72: approach he was more confident in t
Page 73 and 74: “I think in terms of exercising d
Page 75 and 76: Family make up The broad powers of
Page 77 and 78: are trying to deal with the particu
Page 79 and 80: “I wouldn’t dream of making an
Page 81 and 82: interpreter. Similarly, many of the
Page 83 and 84: Judges are human too - personal rea
Page 85 and 86: understand the proceedings, a great
Page 87 and 88: What must be emphasised is that whi
Page 89 and 90: also the most common explanation gi
Page 91 and 92: anomalous case of West Country cour
Page 93 and 94: District judges’ knowledge. Some
Page 95 and 96: Two of the judges interviewed felt
Page 97 and 98: DJ: I’d be inclining towards the
Page 99 and 100: how he dealt with the housing benef
Page 101 and 102: Chapter 8: Particular decisions: gr
Page 103 and 104: Table 10: Outcomes in Ground 8 case
Page 105 and 106: Others were, however, prepared to g
Page 107 and 108: It is perhaps not surprising that,
Page 109 and 110: the basis of the original possessio
Page 111 and 112: Chart 13: Impact of family make up
Page 113: The advice to the tenant was often
Page 117 and 118: shows that the vast majority of tho
Page 119 and 120: important determining factors is th
Page 121 and 122: Thus it is likely that that even th
Page 123 and 124: 110
Page 125 and 126: Lawrence J (1995) “Sentencing pro
Page 127 and 128: give a typology of the characterist
Page 129 and 130: In analysing cases percentages have
Page 131 and 132: Appendix 2 - Research instruments 1
Page 133 and 134: What factors would you ascribe thos
Page 135 and 136: 20. Typically, how would you descri
Page 137 and 138: with a duty desk representative who
Page 139: DCA Research Series No. 6/05 The ex
show all

The exercise of judicial discretion in rent arrears cases - Sheffield ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?