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

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the introduction of standard pro-forma records across all courts could assist in achieving greater consistency, by prompting all judges to draw out evidence on the same key issues in possession cases and to consider the same range of outcomes. 41
Chapter 5: Judges and landlords Introduction In this chapter, we consider how the relationship between the district judges and claimant landlords impacted, if at all, on decision-making in individual cases. It might be posited that the social reality of decision-making ‘on the ground’ would mean that the relationship between judges and claimants would impact on the outcome. The ‘repeat player’ nature of the claimants (see Galanter, 1974), their position within both tenure relationships and society, as well as the length of time allocated in some courts per case, all suggest that outcomes might be affected by this relationship. The fact that a degree of trust and confidence developed between judges and landlords was noted in the study by Nixon et al (1996). This particularly affected the confidence which judges placed on the information which the landlord gave them. In the current study, claimant representatives in the focus groups felt that their familiarity with the district judge could help sometimes, in that cases were easier to present when they knew the particular judge’s approach, and a “good judge will remember reasonable or good organisations”. In the defendant focus groups there was some doubt about the impact of the relationship between judge and claimant’s representatives. First, it was said that this could influence the outcome, for example, where the judge was aware that the claimant habitually overstated their case. Second, the closeness of the relationship could unsettle the defendant: “Actually, its importance is not about the influence but about the impact it has on the proceedings, how they are perceived”. We asked the district judges in our interview sample about their relationship with the landlords who appeared in front of them, and, in particular, whether requests made by the claimants impacted on their decision-making process. Some judges in our sample asserted their neutrality in response to this question: “it’s a judicial relationship” (DJ B); “I mean, all our training, and not just as a judge but as lawyers, you know, teaches us that you keep the acquaintanceship apart from the argument” (DJ L). Some judges spoke of the need to resist ‘cosy’ relationships whilst, nevertheless, having “a good relationship with them because they’re in here all the time” (DJ O). We discuss how and why trust arises in the relationship between judges and claimants in the second section below. However, before we discuss this, we consider whether our 42
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: sought with what they know the judg
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
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Chart 13: Impact of family make up
Page 113 and 114:
The advice to the tenant was often
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Chapter 9: Conclusions Where the la
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shows that the vast majority of tho
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important determining factors is th
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Thus it is likely that that even th
Page 123 and 124:
110
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Lawrence J (1995) “Sentencing pro
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give a typology of the characterist
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In analysing cases percentages have
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Appendix 2 - Research instruments 1
Page 133 and 134:
What factors would you ascribe thos
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20. Typically, how would you descri
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with a duty desk representative who
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DCA Research Series No. 6/05 The ex
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