You must file a Disbursement Order Request form with the clerk's office at 5000 Indiana Ave NW, Suite 5000, Washington DC or electronically on eFILEDC. There is no filing fee for this form.

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. The filing fee for the writ is $213 (clerk's fee is $10, US Marshals Service fee is $195 and the US Marshals Administrative Fee is $8). If you received a judgment (rather than a default), you are not required to file the Servicemembers affidavit.

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. Tenants may have other legal options in the District of Columbia Superior Court, such as filing a lawsuit in another branch of the court (such as the Civil Actions Branch or Small Claims) requesting a court order for repairs to be made or seeking damages against the landlord for not making repairs. If the landlord has sued the tenant for unpaid rent in the Landlord and Tenant Court, the tenant may raise these repairs as a defense to the lawsuit by telling the judge about these problems. The tenant could also include repairs in an agreement that settles a Landlord and Tenant lawsuit. Depending on your circumstances, you may have other options that are not listed here. If you are not sure what the best option is, you should seek legal advice from a private lawyer, Rising for Justice, the Landlord and Tenant Legal Assistance Network, and the Landlord and Tenant Resource Center or another organization in order to protect your legal rights.

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. If a defendant makes this request, the court may continue the case for the parties to present evidence at a hearing called a Bell Hearing.

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. Other suits for damages for personal injuries or damage to a tenant's personal property must be filed in the Small Claims and Conciliation Branch, 510 4th Street, NW, Building B, Room 120 if the amount is $10,000 or less. Suits for damages more than $10,000 must be filed in the Civil Actions Branch, Room 5000 in the Moultrie Courthouse.

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. 73. If you want to appeal an order in a small claims case, you must file an Application for an Allowance of Appeal within three days of the date of the court's decision. If the court's order was mailed , you have eight days to file. (This last section regarding appeal of a small claims decision may belong in its own small claims section, if the CAB, L&T, and Small Claims case types are going to categorized separately.)

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.

As to right to jury trial and jury demand in cases filed in the Civil Actions Branch, a party may demand a jury trial by serving the other parties with a written demand no later than 14 days after the last pleading regarding the issue is served and filing the demand based on Super. Ct. Civ. R. 5 (d). See Super. Ct. Civ.. R. 38. (See Super. Ct. Sm. Cl. R. 6 regarding jury demand in small claims cases.)

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 motion must state the full facts upon which it is based. All motions and related papers must be on 8-1/2 x 11-inch white paper and signed by the filing party with his or her address and telephone number. See SCR-Civ. 10-I. A motion form can be obtained from the Small Claims Clerk’s Office or on the internet at http://www.dccourts.gov/dccourts/superior/civil/forms.jsp. If you do not use the motion form provided by the Small Claims Clerk’s Office, the motion must contain a case caption at the top of the paper and the statement, “THIS MOTION HAS BEEN SET FOR HEARING IN SMALL CLAIMS May 2011 13 COURT ON ____________ [date] AT ____________ [time].” The clerk will insert the date and time of the motion hearing at the bottom of the motion. The Small Claims Clerk’s Office will send notice of motions filed by any party who does not have a lawyer to the opposing party by regular mail. If a party has a lawyer, the lawyer must serve the motion on the opposing party and file an affidavit of service with the Small Claims Clerk’s Office pursuant to SCR-Civ. 5. The filing fee for motions is $10.00, except a motion to reinstate after dismissal under Rule 41-I, which is $25.00, unless the fee is waived by the judge. Parties may pay filing fees by cash, money order, or cashiers check. Lawyers who are members of the DC Bar and approved special process servers may pay filing fees by personal check. If you cannot afford to pay the filing fees, you can file a Motion to Proceed without Prepayment of Costs, Fees, or Security. The judge will decide if you will be allowed to file without paying the filing fees.