Guideline 2

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An eviction court should have emergency procedures for tenants who are locked out or otherwise extrajudicially evicted from their homes.

Commentary:

Substantially all states prohibit extrajudicial "self-help" eviction (often referred to as "lockouts"), which includes various methods of excluding or driving a tenant out of possession such as changing the door locks, terminating essential utility services, threatening physical violence, and other such tactics. Most states provide significant statutory remedies that impose liability and damages on landlords who resort to self-help evictions, as well attorney fees to incentivize lawyers to take lockout cases. Some states even impose criminal liability for extrajudicial lockouts.

All states should have strong substantive remedies such as these to deter lockouts and enable tenants who experience lockouts to recover just compensation. But equally important are fast and reliable procedures tenants can use to regain possession when an illegal lockout occurs. A tenant who is unlawfully excluded from her home cannot afford to endure a long wait for a court hearing. Some states have quick and practical remedies for tenants who experience such unlawful lockouts, such as statutory emergency hearings which pro se tenants may initiate by filing a court form. Making illegal lockouts a crime minimizes this problem by enabling tenants to call law enforcement and regain access with police assistance. But in other states, the only way to secure an emergency hearing is through invoking a court's ordinary procedures for preliminary injunctions or temporary restraining orders. This is seldom a practical solution for tenants without legal representation.