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

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court we observed sufficient cases distributed between eight judges for some data analysis to be undertaken on the outcomes in this one court. Qualitative observation in Northern 1 court The first judge observed appeared keen to put tenants who had attended at ease, for example in one case making a friendly remark about the football shirt a defendant was wearing, while in another telling a defendant not to look so worried. The judge was also happy for defendants' children to be present during the hearing. The judge took a considerable amount of time to make each order, carefully considering the details of each case, particularly those where a possession order had been requested and seeming very reluctant to grant possession orders unless there was an indisputable case, instead preferring to adjourn. Adjournments would often be made on the evidence of at least some rent payment by the tenant in recent months, even if those payments had been sporadic. The judge saw this as an indication that the tenant "was trying". In some cases the judge also took into account the defendant’s family circumstances. If the defendant was present the reasons for making an order and its terms would be explained. While underlining the seriousness of the issue, the judge also made clear that the defendant would be in no danger of losing their home if they adhered to the terms of the order made. The second judge observed in Northern 1 court was a deputy, with less experience of both possession hearings and of this particular court. This judge made orders on the basis of less information than the first, only asking for further details if an outright possession order was requested, or in some instances when the defendant was present at the hearing. This judge seemed more willing simply to accept the request of the claimant's representative without question and processed cases very quickly. The deputy judge’s manner was also less affable than that of the first judge observed; on one occasion a defendant was interrupted and an outright order made after hearing very few details about their circumstances. Thus Northern 1 court provided an opportunity to observe a contrast in judicial styles. Although no more than anecdotal, the observation sessions and the cases recorded tend to support the view that judicial approach affects outcomes, with the first judge adjourning more cases and the second making more possession orders as requested by the claimant, which in both sessions observed was the local authority. 33
Qualitative and quantitative data from London court Chart 6 below shows the way in which the outcomes of the cases (already presented in Chart 2 above) were distributed by district judge (who have been given numbers for this purpose). These demonstrate some variation, although the number of actual cases heard by some judges are small and the chart should, therefore, be viewed with some caution. For example, in the sample of cases observed, deputy district judge (DDJ) 4 granted no outright possession orders in the sample of 29 cases observed, and DDJ 7 made a possession order in four cases out of a sample of 23 cases observed. There were also variations on granting adjournments which, in some cases, are marked: DDJ 7 granted an adjournment in 16 cases out of 23 cases observed (70%); whereas DDJ 8 granted adjournments in eight cases out of a total of 26 cases observed (31%); on the other hand, district judge (DJ) 5 granted 44 adjournments out of 53 cases observed (83%); DJ 1 granted 29 adjournments out of a sample of 41 cases observed (74%); and DJ 6 granted 35 adjournments out of 49 cases observed (71%). Chart 6: Orders Granted by London DJs 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Total DJ 1 DJ 2 DJ 3 DDJ4 DJ 5 DJ 6 DDJ7 DDJ8 34 Other Adjournment SPO Outright It is also striking how the different district judges responded to requests made by landlords. For example, DDJ 4 and DDJ7 both always granted the order requested by the claimant. The distribution for the other judges is more varied where an outright order or a suspended order was requested. For example, DJ 1 granted a suspended possession order in six cases out of the 15 requested (40%) and DJ 2 in seven out of the 12 requested (58%). It was suggested in the focus groups that there was a tendency for deputy district judges to be harder on defendants, which is not totally borne out by this limited sample.
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: The views of the claimants’ group
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 and 114:
The advice to the tenant was often
Page 115 and 116:
Chapter 9: Conclusions Where the la
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
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