Unlawful detainer judges favor landlords

Although the July 6 article on the Basta law firm's success in demanding jury trials ("LA tenant firm shakes up the system with trial demands") focuses primarily on the plight of poor Hispanic tenants, the problem actually covers a wider swath of tenants.

More than a decade ago, I represented a performer who had stayed in the same apartment for years. As the Bush wars heated up, he regularly traveled the world, performing on military bases to entertain our troops. While away on one such tour, his landlady, eager to jack up the rent with a new tenant, posted a three-day notice to pay or quit on his door.

I asked for a jury trial, and was told by the landlord's (unlawful detainers only) attorney that jury trials were not available in UD cases. The trial court had to take the matter under submission before ruling that, yes, a jury trial was available. And also had to struggle with whether discovery was available.

I sat through a few days of watching judges in UD cases. They were uniformly dismissive of UD defendants, and engaged in "humorous" banter with landlords' attorneys at the expense of unrepresented tenants.

My discovery led to a trial presentation in which the landlady and her onsite manager ended up contradicting each other about who had altered the three-day notice after it had been posted! The jury took less than 90 minutes to decide the case in my client's favor. Then the court granted the landlady's attorney's request to cut my attorney fees (under the lease agreement) by 1/2 because "UD attorneys don't charge as much as Family Law attorneys." My client was white, male and middle-aged, with a steady income.

If the courts are being overwhelmed, perhaps it is less the fault of Mr. Bramzon's firm than of the UD judges who have developed such a deference for landlords and contempt for tenants. The landlords in the story try to paint themselves as victims of new tactics. In reality, they may be victims of their own long success at being allowed to victimize their tenants without any real scrutiny from the UD courts.