Blog Post 2
Throughout the course of the semester,
we have tried to understand the paths and processes of housing court. The
overall consensus is that there is no user-friendliness once past the security
checkpoint. A main concern, I have found, is that landlords have the upper
hand. They may (or may not) have been through the eviction process before,
therefore lending themselves to better understand not only the processes of the
system, but also where to go, when to be there, and what to say once in front
of a judge.
They know the information to speak to, what paperwork to bring, what lawyers they can contact, the resources available to them. The imbalance lies in the tenant’s court. Most often than not, landlords have the knowledge and experience that tenants lack, therefore eliciting an unfairly intimidating process when entering the courthouse on eviction day. But why does it seem that the landlords are given home-field advantage to the brutal game of eviction?
They know the information to speak to, what paperwork to bring, what lawyers they can contact, the resources available to them. The imbalance lies in the tenant’s court. Most often than not, landlords have the knowledge and experience that tenants lack, therefore eliciting an unfairly intimidating process when entering the courthouse on eviction day. But why does it seem that the landlords are given home-field advantage to the brutal game of eviction?
Upon further research into the
resources available to both parties, www.mass.gov
does in fact explain and offer guidance to the eviction process. There are
designated links entitled “Evictions for Landlords” and “Evictions for Tenants”.
Both of these links then further explain what to do, where to go, and what to
bring.
The website is extremely informative and direct, however there is
clearly still a gap of understanding and a lack of accessibility to the people who
may need this information the most. The clarity of the website does not match
the environment in which these processes take place, so we as designers should
attempt to consider our ability to bridge the gap. Perhaps the problems lie in
the clinically white walls devoid of any sort of directive imagery for one to
follow. Perhaps it is in the lack of assistance given to visitors walking
through the doors. The processes that are contained within the court walls are
highly dependent on a visitors ability to be where they need to be and
understand how to get there. The process of roll call, to being assigned a
court room, to then traveling to that specific courtroom, waiting for your case
to be called is overwhelming. If a tenant is late because they do not know
where to go for roll call first thing in the morning, they are considered MIA
and therefore the landlord automatically is considered the “winner” by default.
Is it the tenant’s fault that they didn’t’ know where to go or how to get to
roll call?, Maybe not, but it can often seem like the chips are stacked against
the tenants summoned to court.