In our system, landlords have lawyers. Tenants often don’t. So tenants lose.

From the Washington Post Opinion: Cleveland enacted an ordinance providing court-appointed lawyers to certain low-income tenants fighting eviction cases that could cost them their homes, a burgeoning risk for people who have lost jobs in the pandemic. Most landlords have lawyers when they go to court. So now, in Cleveland at least, there is a chance for a level playing field in housing court. Maybe lawyers will even stop referring to it as “eviction court,” given that the vast majority of tenants represented by lawyers were able to avoid being thrown out of their homes.

Read the full opinion piece