BBs helping BBs

[gsabc]

Very excellent news. Messy is better than trashed and is easier to remedy. Here's hoping for a swift sale and an end to the ordeal for your client.

[wintergreen48]

My client has the house back and I couldn't be happier. I want to give a psychological diagnosis of the renter, but I don't think my malpractice insurance would cover that.

ever see "Pacific Heights"?


gettin back rent is pretty tough

one usually gets a judgment
that and $.70 will get one a cup of joe

This can be a real pain in Maryland.

Under the Maryland Constitution, you are entitled to a jury trial if the amount involved int he case is $500 or more (this, of course, goes back to the days when $500 was big money; ironically, jury trials in Maryland generally take place in the Circuit Court, and you cannot even bring suit in Circuit Court for less than $2,500-- it might even be more today, but when I was practicising in the 1980's it was $2,500-- but you can get a case into Circuit Court through the back door by demanding $500 in Small Claims Court; the US Constitution gives you a right to a jury trial if the amount in controversy is more than $25-- which was a lot of money back in 1789-- but the US judicial system gets around this by simply prohibiting you from suing in the first place unless you are suing for a really big amount of money).

Well. Well when I was still in private practice, I happened to have a case in District Court, some little contract thingie that involve maybe $7,000, no one wanted to bother with the time, trouble or expense of a jury trial, whch was good. We had to wait for the judge to finish with that day's 'rent court,' and while we waited, we watched one of the cases that involved a situation almost identical to the one that TMITSSS resolved: deadbeat tenants who refused to pay rent and refused to leave, and 'landlords' who were just homeowners who owned and rented a single house. The houseowners filed a standard rent/eviction action, and made the mistake of requesting that the tenants be ordered to pay the unpaid rent; alas, the unpaid rent totalled about $900, which was more than the Constitutional amount of $500, so the deadbeat tenants demanded a jury trial; that took the case out of the jurisdiction of the District Court, and removed it to Circuit Court... where there was at least a two-year wait for a jury trial. 'Professional' landlords knew better than to do this: when they had deadbeat tenants, they just requested the eviction and waived the rent (or filed a separate rent action later); in those days you could have a tenant out within two weeks of filing the eviction action (unless the tenant paid the rent, in which case the landlord would have to wait until the next missed rent payment), so you had the irony of being able to move super-quickly if all you wanted was to get the deadbeats out, but you were screwed if the deadbeats actually owed you more than $500.

[themanintheseersuckersuit]

In S.C. you get can request a jury trial in an eviction, but it is in Magistrates Court. One tactic he used was to wait to the last minute to request a jury trial and get a delay. Jury trial can be demanded up to 5 days before a hearing. This guy annoyed the judge and the judge set the jury trial for 2 weeks after the 1st hearing was scheduled.