As court hearings resume, are others seeing extremely wild reasons why judges are denying proper motions and finding every reason to side with the defendants?

Here in MI we can watch hearings online and I do so just to see how most judges are handling cases as things ramp back up. I watched a case where the plaintiff requested a motion to set aside an installment payment plan because the defendant stopped making payments the month prior to the shut down due to the pandemic. Plaintiff wanted the installment agreement set aside because the defendant wasn't paying they he wanted to be able to seek garnishment if payments didn't resume.

First the judge asked the attorney if he'd had a conversation with the defendant and the attorney said they had not spoken to her and the judge was upset about the lack of communication. The attorney then clarified that letters had been sent notifying the defendant of the missed payments and then the judge really got upset because they tried to collect (notification of missed payment via mail) during the pandemic. They argued about whether or not it was illegal to send the letters during the pandemic and the judge failed to the find the "order" he claimed was put in place nationwide prohibiting past due collection statements.

Second, he was upset when he noticed the date on the motion was the day before the courts officially opened its doors and was all set to dismiss the motion due to improper filing. However, his court reporter spoke up and clarified that the clerks began processing files a few days before the doors were actually open to the public. He didn't believe her.

Then to top it off, he asked the attorney if he knew if the defendant was dead or alive (due to the pandemic). The attorney said his office runs scrubs prior to hearings just to confirm their files are up to date. The judge said that was not adequate since the state is behind on finalizing death certificates and then adjourned the hearing 30 days, requiring the attorney to prove the person isn't dead and then he did the same for any subsequent cases. The attorney needed to verify all of the defendants were still alive.

Have you always been able to watch court cases online or did that start due to COVID-19?

This is new since covid.

Jennisam,

Wow! Is it normal for that judge to ask for proof of life?

I suspect your judge was making up a criteria on the fly. Was this the first day open for evictions?

Me? Make the order. If the person is dead the order will not go anywhere.

I don’t recall any order (maybe your state had one) stating the LL could not talk to the res about payments. In fact every public announcement seems to say “Talk to your LL and work out a plan”.

I’m hoping others post their experiences.

Brad,

It's a new one for him but he's known for his shenanigans and was threatened with contempt by a higher court for refusing to issue an eviction on a case after being ordered to do so. The attorney's were floored by the requirement and I commend them for keeping their cool. I wasn't a party to either cases and I was losing it at home just watching. Thank goodness my attorney is banned from his courtroom.

Each attorney said the same thing, if the person is dead, then the case goes nowhere. But that just caused the judge to go into a 15 minute rant saying "In case you didn't know there is a thing happening called a pandemic..." It was infuriating.

There was an order from the governor stating landlords could not include a demand for possession but sending statements about the balance and payment was perfectly fine. He makes it up as he goes along. In this particular case, the person's last payment was in January so the pandemic was not the reason for non-payment.

Robin,

It is absolutely astonishing and he is doing this for every single case that comes before him regardless of the type of case. I'm watching him on Zoom now. A payday loan company is asking for a judgement for payments that stopped in December and he is making them prove the guy is not dead before he'll rule on the case. She told him that she called his best friend who was listed as a reference on the application just last week and the friend agreed to pass on the message. If he was dead, wouldn't the friend have said so?

JenniSam,

I foudn the live feed. Which judge?

Send in Rob Wolchek from Fox 2 Detroit TV. He'll do a story and put the judge in the HALL OF SHAME!!

He has done a few on judges.

LOVE watching him on YouTube!

BRAD

Judge Marable.

I am amazed about all these motions and proceedings. I am amazed there is a court reporter.

We have none of that - magistrate asks if rent is paid or not. I say no. They ask the tenant and of course the tenant says no. She allows the tenant to babble a little bit to get it off their chest and bam ... I win. The magistrate takes notes on a yellow legal tablet.

Yeah, I'm with Nicole. This is really weird. Where I am in Michigan, it is very much like what she just said: magistrate asks if they've paid, they tenant rambles on a bit, but admits that they haven't, and I get the judgement.

I've never seen motions and such like this for a simple eviction for non-payment hearing.

Glad I'm not in your area, JenniSam! Good luck!

- John...

JenniSam,

I finally located that judge and watched one hearing just for grins.

Wow! Voters should watch him before voting again. And HIS phone rang during the hearing! Not sure if he heard the atty as he fiddled with his phone and odd papers.

Defendants had no proof they filed BK but he postponed it anyway.