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

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
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