Civil - General

You must use court process to evict the tenant. To do this, you must wait at least forty-eight hours after entry of a judgment or a default before you return to the Landlord and Tenant Clerk's Office to file a writ of restitution, which orders the eviction of the tenant. If you have a "default," you must turn the "default" into a "judgment" by filing a Servicemembers affidavit with the court certifying that the tenant is not on active duty with the military or other government service.

If a landlord fails to make repairs after a tenant notifies the landlord about the need for repairs, the tenant has several options. A tenant may sue their landlord for DC Housing Code violations by filing a complaint and summons with the Civil Actions Branch Clerk's Office, Moultrie Courthouse, Room 5000.

If your landlord has sued you in Landlord and Tenant Court, you can ask the court to allow you to pay your rent into the registry of the court until the case is over. Either party may request a protective order. If the protective order is not entered by consent of both parties, the court will determine the amount of money that should be paid each month, which usually is the amount of the monthly rent. A defendant may request that the court reduce the amount of the protective order based on housing code violations.

You can ask the court to stop the eviction by filing an Application to Stay Execution of the Writ of Restitution in the Landlord and Tenant Clerk's Office. If the reason the landlord sued you is because you owe rent, you can avoid eviction by paying the landlord all of the rent and court costs that you owe as of the day the you make the payment. (This includes the rent that has come due since the time the landlord filed the lawsuit.) If you bring your account current with the landlord, the landlord cannot evict you unless he or she brings a new lawsuit.

If you do not believe that you should be evicted, you can come to court immediately and file an Application to Stay Execution of the Writ of Restitution in the Landlord and Tenant Clerk's Office. You may also want to file a motion to ask the court to vacate the judgment so that you can present defenses you have to the case. There is no cost for the application.

If you are already involved in a non-payment of rent case in Landlord and Tenant, you can file a counterclaim to collect money from your landlord for part or all of the rent that you paid in the past when the apartment or house was in need of repair. You can also collect money to reimburse you for the costs of repairs that you have personally made to the apartment or house.

The response there states: If you lost the case, you can appeal to the Court of Appeals. To start the appeal, you must file a Notice of Appeal within 30 days after the docketing date of the judgment order. The form can be found on the court's website. If you lost the case and the judgment was issued by a magistrate judge, you must file a motion for review in the Civil Division - not in the D.C. Court of Appeals. The motion for review must be filed within 14 days after entry of the magistrate judge's decision. See Super. Ct. Civ. R.

Any party can make a request to have their case heard by a jury either initially when filing your new complaint or via a Motion no later than 14 days after the service of the last document that raised the issue you want a jury to decide. You can file at the Clerk’s Office, electronically or by mail.

A party can ask the judge to make a ruling or order something to be done by filing a written motion or making an oral motion in court during the trial or hearing. Usually, one side files a motion, the other side files a written response, and the court holds a hearing, where the parties give brief oral arguments. If a motion is based upon facts that are not clear to the judge from the documents previously filed by the parties, it must be in writing and filed with an affidavit or sworn testimony of the person filing the motion, his agent, or some other competent person.

The Small Claims Branch is less formal than other branches of the Court. The procedures are simple and costs kept low so that most people do not need a lawyer to represent them in their small claims case. You must be 18 years old to file a case. Someone who is under the age of 18 or an incompetent person can only sue through a "representative or next of friend". An “incompetent person” is someone who a judge believes cannot make legal decisions for him or herself. A “representative or next of friend” is a person acting for the minor child or incompetent person.