Ryan & Chambers Armstrong: Buying Time

In Buying Time, authors Christopher J. Ryan, Jr. (Indiana Law) and Cassie Chambers Armstrong (Louisville Law) consider how both access to legal representation and extended length of proceedings result in more favorable outcomes for tenants facing eviction proceedings. The impact is even greater in cases occurring in rural communities.  

The authors explain that the number of eviction proceedings across the country has continued to grow, leading to significant individual and broader social costs that come with people losing access to housing. Evictions are an increasingly common reality, particularly for low-income women, domestic violence victims, and families with children who face increased mental and physical health struggles, as well as future housing barriers as a result of eviction. In many eviction proceedings, tenants lack access to legal counsel and face turnaround times as short as a week in some states. This is especially true in rural communities where unclear procedures and a lack of attorneys results in a significant access to justice gap.

By evaluating data provided by the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts for eviction proceedings from 2018 to 2022, the authors empirically analyzed the effect of access to attorneys and the length of proceedings for tenants facing eviction. They found that access to attorneys increases the duration of the proceeding, assists with understanding how to deal with the courts, and provides a connection to other non-legal resources to maintain housing. The authors point out that adding an attorney adds an average of 17 days to the proceeding. This extra time is essential for tenants to manage the burdens of the process and leads to significantly better outcomes. Almost 60% of those tenants whose cases were longer than average avoided eviction, as opposed to 40% with shorter than average proceedings. The study also sought to identify the differences in rural evictions, finding that rural evictions proceed much more quickly and result in less favorable outcomes for tenants. Rural tenants are 55% more likely to experience an adverse judgment just because of where they live.

The authors conclude that access to time and attorneys are essential factors to improve tenant outcomes. They point out that expanding right-to-counsel programs has lowered eviction rates, including a 30% reduction in New York City. However, they also acknowledge that rural places face significant challenges to improving legal access and that more research must be done to better understand disparities for rural tenants.

For readers interested in more on this rural eviction data, we recommend Cassie Chambers Armstrong’s original commentary—Rural Renting—here on the Review.