For the last year, Thomas Lodwick, JD ‘13, has spent several days a week at the Buncombe County courthouse, helping Western North Carolina residents avoid homelessness by representing them in eviction cases.
Mr. Lodwick works on the Tenant Eviction Response Program for Pisgah Legal Services. The program fights evictions on the front lines by placing attorneys and volunteers outside the courtroom and intervening in cases moments before defendants are due to appear in court.
Since June 2018, the program has taken on 160 eviction cases, helping close to 400 people from underserved populations stay in their homes.
“For me it’s been important to keep a focus on the number of people we’ve helped,” Mr. Lodwick said. “Many times, there are children involved in these cases. So many times I’m representing a single parent who’s juggling working, paying bills, and raising kids on their own. That’s why the number of people is more than double the number of cases.”
Residents facing eviction have very little time to prepare before appearing in court, and most likely do not have access to resources to fight their eviction.
“Evictions happen so fast in North Carolina,” Mr. Lodwick said. From the day a landlord files an eviction, the law mandates that a landlord get a hearing within seven days. Tenants, though, are only entitled to two days notice before their hearing.
“If you’re only entitled to 48-hours notice that is not a lot of time to get help, resolve the eviction, or even find out what you need to do in this situation,” he said. “Even if they get three or four days notice, it’s just not enough time to get help to deal with their emergency.”
Pisgah Legal attorneys and volunteers review the docket of cases on Thursdays and Fridays to prepare for the upcoming week. “Doing that kind of prep work the week before lets us jump in really quickly. I have forms they have to fill out, but usually, I can make an assessment within a couple of minutes if we can help them,” Mr. Lodwick said.
“Sometimes we’re just giving them the advice they need, sometimes we’re trying to work out a deal with their landlord, or we may try to get it continued to work it out,” Mr. Lodwick said, “but essentially we’re providing legal aid in the moment of greatest need for folks often a couple of minutes before their hearing."
To Pisgah Legal, the work done through the Tenant Eviction Response Program is a step toward providing a right to counsel in eviction cases. Currently, defendants do not have a right to legal counsel in civil cases, but in emergency situations that threaten family livelihoods, legal aid is imperative.
“There’s a much bigger national movement right now to provide a right to counsel in civil matters especially in eviction cases. You’re seeing that in bigger cities,” Mr. Lodwick said. “Originally, that’s how this program was dreamed up as a way to get closer to closing the justice gap in eviction cases. We’re not there yet, but that’s part of what motivates us.”
While attorneys and volunteers put in countless hours helping Western North Carolina residents, Mr. Lodwick said Pisgah Legal could not do the work they do without the support of the local community and legal institutions.
“We’re lucky, we have a courthouse that supports this. We have a local bar that supports it. We’ve got lots of support from donors who see the necessity of this work, and we definitely couldn’t do it without that,” Mr. Lodwick said. “We always want to recognize that. We’ve been lucky in that regard.”
Prior to joining Pisgah Legal, Mr. Lodwick came to GW Law in 2013 to pursue a career in public interest law. He built up his professional experience through clinic and course work.
“I’ve been really lucky to get to work in public interest thus far in my career,” Mr. Lodwick said. “GW Law provided great support to me as a student. I received great training in Professor Jessica K. Steinberg’s legal clinic and received great advice from Professor Alan B. Morrison as a public interest advisor."
Learn more about how GW Law prepares students for careers in public service at law.gwu.edu/public-interest-pro-bono.