Fancy lawyer gets angry about evictions, does something about it

June 13, 2024 7:57 AM

Mark Melton nearly single handedly has created a system for providing representation to people facing eviction in Dallas When tenants don’t have legal representation, landlords win 79% of the time. With legal representation that drops to 10%. In Texas, eviction courts are handled by justices of the peace and defendants are not entitled to legal representation. Simply enforcing due process has made a dramatic difference in people’s lives.

In most states, justices of the peace are authorized to preside over local courts handling minor criminal or civil disputes within a specific precinct. Usually this is small claims court, traffic violations, administer oaths and sometimes judge criminal misdemeanors. In Texas, and 7 other states, this includes eviction proceedings. Justices of the peace are elected, do not need to have a legal background (although often do) and are given training in the laws that apply in their jurisdiction after they are elected or appointed. In the case of evictions in Texas, a state with very few renter protections, this often means that rule of law is unevenly applied.

posted by larthegreat (20 comments total)

What a hero!
posted by pwinn at 9:32 AM on June 13 [3 favorites]

Also, amazing and compelling writing. Texas Monthly is doing great work, and Nickell wrote a fantastic article.
posted by pwinn at 9:54 AM on June 13 [10 favorites]

I read this recently and was delighted. Some additional context from local & Texas media:
Amid high rents, eviction filings in major Texas cities soar above pre-pandemic levels (Feb 16 2024)
The Lawyer Who Landlords Don’t Want to See in Court (May 21 2024) & Mark Melton Fights Illegal Evictions (podcast, May 17 2024). The second one has a photo of his tattoo of my favorite local pizza chain.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 9:55 AM on June 13 [6 favorites]

Well, I'm going to donate something to DEAC.

And if they support a slate of justices, I'll try to donate to them too.
posted by Chrysopoeia at 10:25 AM on June 13 [3 favorites]

This is bananas, at the start of the section in their saturation strategy to represent all tenants:

he was flipping through the day’s docket, researching the companies that own the apartment complexes that had filed for evictions, looking into possible defenses before he had even met the clients. He could determine, for example, whether a company’s tax status was active with the secretary of state. It often is not, in which case the corporation doesn’t have standing to file any sort of lawsuit in Texas, including for an eviction, so those cases should be automatically dismissed.

posted by migurski at 10:30 AM on June 13 [15 favorites]

Also, Texas JP justice reads like something from the middle chapters of a Ken Follett novel. Positively medieval stuff.
posted by migurski at 10:31 AM on June 13 [3 favorites]

He could determine, for example, whether a company’s tax status was active with the secretary of state. It often is not, in which case the corporation doesn’t have standing to file any sort of lawsuit in Texas, including for an eviction, so those cases should be automatically dismissed.

Yes, if Texas law were as strict with corporations who haven't paid their filing fees as it is with tenants who are late with rent, presumably all these businesses would immediately be dissolved and their assets auctioned off.
posted by smelendez at 10:42 AM on June 13 [15 favorites]

It is improper of me to comment without having read the article, but I am REALLY a fan of this guy just based on the pullquote (and migurski's quote in the comments), and I have been impressed with every Texas Monthly article I've ever read, so I am confident that this is an awesome post.

Off to read the article itself later today, but in the meantime: thank you so much for posting this, larthegreat. I am really glad to know about Melton and his inspiring work.
posted by kristi at 11:28 AM on June 13 [4 favorites]

I remember this was a big DSA initiative a few years ago. Kudos to this guy.
posted by daHIFI at 11:51 AM on June 13 [1 favorite]

This article is both completely inspiring and absolutely gutting. 8% of rental households in Dallas County were evicted in a SINGLE YEAR (2023)? 1 in 12????
posted by misskaz at 12:05 PM on June 13 [8 favorites]

This is amazing. Even one eviction on someone's record can keep them from ever finding housing in their name again. Even if they do find a landlord willing to rent to them, the additional fees are often oppressive.
posted by Thrakburzug at 2:22 PM on June 13 [6 favorites]

Getting to the end of TFA, and reading about the personal cost that Melton has paid, I'm not expecting his effort to be widely emulated. I certainly couldn't do it.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 4:46 PM on June 13 [3 favorites]

Good for him.

I'm not expecting his effort to be widely emulated. I certainly couldn't do it.

Which is why localities need to establish a right to a lawyer in housing court. NYC has done it (though unsurprisingly implementation has been rocky).
posted by praemunire at 5:14 PM on June 13 [5 favorites]

I'm constantly amazed at a legal system that allows anyone who can cobble together a few votes to sit as a judge (perhaps not technically, but in every other way) and make life-changing decisions with apparently little or no oversight or accountability or even, at best, with absolutely no knowledge of the law and, at worst, deliberate intent to cause harm to people they see as beneath them. It looks a lot like a system based on the idea of putting people in the gutter and keeping them there one way or another.

Great piece of writing, too.
posted by dg at 8:02 PM on June 13 [2 favorites]

Amazing read, what outstanding humans these are. Thank you so much for posting this.
posted by hilaryjade at 8:54 PM on June 13

I should subscribe to Texas Monthly.

Melton thrived. A hard worker unfazed by rejection, he spent his days cold-calling debtors and persuading them to pay their bills

I'm not judging teenage Melton on it, but as far as this article's construction goes, this stint as a teenage credit card debt collector jumped out to me as deserving a lookback from later experience.
posted by away for regrooving at 12:19 AM on June 14 [1 favorite]

Which is why localities need to establish a right to a lawyer in housing court

One thing that comes through very clearly in TFA is the lack of any kind of resourcing for the truly down-and-out. The 0th step in every kind of public assistance is setting up various hoops for people to jump through so that the most needy will not bother/be disqualified.

I would like to have had TFA call out the fact that what makes Melton's effort different is that he just helps anybody who needs it. More like that please.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 7:09 AM on June 14 [10 favorites]

Amazing read. Thank you for sharing it.
posted by brainwane at 12:18 PM on June 14

I bookmarked this article to share with anyone who mentions moving to Texas. I can speak with authority about the heat and the wobbly infrastructure and the hurricanes and politics, but this article conveys a sheer meanness in the system.

I have had a couple experiences with JP courts (small claims, not eviction) and hope to never go back.

The two anecdotes about renters losing cases that they should have won on the merits, based on what had just happened in the courtroom... no words.
posted by mersen at 2:15 PM on June 14 [3 favorites]

The part about how Legal Aid can only help a small number of people due to means testing is evidence that means testing is intended to keep people from accessing resources. Doing away with means testing and making safety net resources available and attainable by anybody is a really important goal in terms of building a more equitable society. We don’t have good transit bc transit is framed (or understood) as being for poor people. We don’t have universal health care bc same.
posted by toodleydoodley at 6:03 PM on June 19