#ClosedDoors
How reporters across the country battled judges and big banks to report on evictions
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Possession court hearings in England and Wales were almost always held in private until 2019. Then the second most senior judge, the Master of the Rolls, who is head of the civil justice system, changed the rules. The inspiringly titled CPR 39 - Civil Procedure Rule 39 - was updated to make it the default that these hearings be heard in public.
This rule change was one of the reasons we set about sending 20 reporters into possession court hearings across England and Wales this summer. We wanted to take a closer look at the legal process that determines whether a person should lose the roof over their head. But we found that reporters had rarely taken up this new chance to sit in these small courtrooms: judges and lawyers were often surprised to see another person, someone not directly connected with the case.
Day after day over the two months of reporting, our reporters - some freelance, some staff at local papers - contacted us with problems. Some judges had told them they could not come in. Some lawyers for big banks told them they could not record the names of those attending, or the amounts of mortgage arrears.
We had prepared for several weeks for this project, and had consulted at the highest level of the judiciary to get advice on how to conduct this process. CPR 39 is not hugely clear, as you can read for yourself. But it does state clearly: "The general rule is that a hearing is to be in public."
Many of the objections to our presence came from lawyers representing banks in mortgage hearings. We went into this project expecting to report predominantly on renters, as we did in the first story we published from this reporting. But the more that banks' lawyers tried to block our reporters from hearings, the more we asked ourselves: what are they trying to hide? So we explored the data and findings from our observation of mortgage hearings, and from our scrape of thousands of possession court listings, and published a second story.
But the judges themselves often acquiesced to the demands of these lawyers, or had their own reasons for not allowing reporters into their court, and we regularly had to appeal to more senior judges in the area to have our reporters re-admitted. So in our third story, published today, we highlighted these access issues.
Open Justice is a key principle of a democratic society, where we can see the justice process in action, and react to inequality or unfairness. As journalists, we have a responsibility to scrutinise these processes. But what happens when key decisions are taken behind closed doors? Or when judges and lawyers disagree about whether a decision should be made in public or in private?
This was a wider question discussed by MPs this week, as part of a Justice Select Committee inquiry. Our reporter Maeve McClenaghan was asked to give evidence on our findings.
Possession court hearings in county courts in England and Wales make some of the most important decisions a society has to make, including whether someone should be forced out of their home. We hope our work sheds light on how this process is pursued, who is forced into it and why. And perhaps it will encourage more journalists to go to a county court near them to look at how the possession court process is working near them, and it what it tells us about the state of housing, affordability and debt in our communities.
>> Read our latest story on court access
>> Watch our reporter Maeve give evidence to the Justice Select Committee
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Dig into these issues in your area
Since September, we've been sharing the findings of our reporting in possession courts. And across the country, our local reporters have also written about what they found in their areas.
Together, we've built the first dataset of its kind and painted an unprecedented picture of how the pandemic has affected people's housing - as well as the challenges we faced in trying to find out. We've published findings nationally and locally and spoken to renters, mortgage holders, landlords and lenders - but there are still more stories to tell.
In the coming weeks we'll be making our data public, and hosting an online event to discuss how it might be used locally and within the housing sector. We'd love to see you there, so watch this space for further details and these exciting open resources very soon.
>> Catch up on our national #ClosedDoors stories
>> Read stories from our local #ClosedDoors reporters |
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Get in touch
Know about something we should dig into? Get in touch!
Email: bureaulocal@tbij.com
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Twitter: @bureaulocal
Slack: #newsroom
Thanks!
The Bureau Local team
Charles, Gareth, Emiliano, Emily, Eve, Megan, Rachel, Shirish and Vicky
www.thebureaulocal.com
@bureaulocal
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About us
The Bureau Local has been set up by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and is a people-powered network setting the news agenda and sparking change, from the ground up.
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