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

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think they’re all honest, but as to how reasonable they are in their demands or requests.” (DJ N) “Over the years you see how they approach a case. If they approach it obviously on common sense principles that they know I’m going to go along with.” (DJ T) There are suggestions in the data, therefore, that over time claimants themselves are being judged on the requests they make. Where these appear sensible to the judge, then this may impact on the decision. “But I suppose you get to an extent where you find that where you challenged them [the landlord] on a few occasions, and they’ve always come up trumps on a large, busy list, you’re tending to accept it.” (DJ D) This particular effect of the relationship was by no means universal amongst our interviewees. So, for example, on the other hand, it was said by one judge that: “The longer one does the job, the easier it is to stick up to landlords. When you start, you lack confidence in sticking up to them” (DJ H) Thus, there are clearly a range of possible impacts of this relationship over time. However, sometimes just knowing the way landlords approach their cases meant that signals could be given by a landlord that a case was different in some way. This may not affect the actual decision in the case, but it would mean that the case was treated differently. “If they are seeking an outright order or if they are opposing a warrant suspension, there’s normally a pretty good reason for them to do so, it has to be said. You think, well, you know, ‘If [local authority representative] is opposing this then, you know, he’s got his reasons for it’. It doesn’t necessarily mean to say you agree with those reasons. I mean there’s many a request which he’s made for me not to suspend a warrant, for example, which I have refused. But having said that, I think, …if he’s opposing an application then there’s normally a good reason, even if there’s not a sufficient reason.” (DJ J) “If [local authority] representatives are actively pursuing some sort of immediate order, I don’t do it on the nod, but I think well there is clearly something here; this isn’t their normal approach at all.” (DJ F) Trust and Confidence The limited amount of time allocated to each case means that trust can have more of an impact on the process, as opposed to the outcome, in each case. We found that there was a relationship between trust and confidence. Where district judges express confidence in claimants’ representatives, they were more likely to be trusting of them. Three examples are discussed where this trust/confidence affects the process: the paperwork, oral evidence, and agreements. 49
District judges differed on how much they would check the papers provided by the claimant in advance of the hearing. In some courts it was apparent that certain judges would be less likely to give lengthy consideration of the evidence of certain, usually local authority, repeat player claimants. “They’re all very well geared to doing it and they know what they’re doing. And the paperwork’s normally, well I would expect the paperwork to be in order. So to be quite honest, I just check that there’s a court file and there’s been say a notice served and everything. I don’t make a big thing about checking all the paperwork. To be quite honest, if we had to check all that meticulously, we wouldn’t be able to list six or seven per half an hour.” (DJ V) “With the local authority, though, it tends to be pretty much standard stuff they don’t always produce a copy of everything” (DJ Z) Confidence can play a crucial role in busy courts, in that the judge feels that they do not necessarily have to press the landlord for further information or, even, feel that they are being excluded from some information about the defendant. The judge is able to limit questions to a narrower range, or expresses feelings of ‘comfort’ in knowing that he is being presented with all the relevant facts. It does not change the decision, but makes it easier to make, as the following quotations illustrate. “The relationship doesn’t impact on the decision at all. It makes the decision-making easier because what you want is to get down to the important factors as quickly as you can. So knowing the person, them knowing what you want, them saying the things that are crucial to the issue is what’s important, not because it’s that person it’s easier to make a decision. It’s not. It’s getting the information before the court, that’s the important part.” (DJ S) “And you sort of feel fairly safe with them, that they will tell you the information that you need and that they will not conceal something which they know that you might be interested in but they don’t want you to know about.” (DJ Q) Confidence in the skills of the landlord representative can also have an impact on whether agreements between landlords and tenants are re-opened for consideration by the judge, for example as to their affordability. There was a range of practice on this issue. Some district judges stressed the need for agreements because their lists were lengthy (and in any event with tenants on benefit there were few alternative options), whilst others would routinely reopen them. Thus, this was not necessarily related to the trust/confidence that judges might have in claimants. “If they come to me and ask for a suspended possession order and it’s been agreed and I think that…you know, I wouldn’t make this order…but…if that’s what they’ve agreed, I’ll do it.” (DJ M) “I’d like to see the tenant. But sometimes they do come to an agreement particularly where they’re on benefits and we have the standard two pounds eighty five pence 50
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: Thus it can be seen that the type o
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
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important determining factors is th
Page 121 and 122:
Thus it is likely that that even th
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110
Page 125 and 126:
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
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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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