Why is Forrest County Justice Court still ordering evictions kicking families out into the streets despite a federal ban on evictions which mean no evictions can take place until 2021? The Center for Disease Control says it's illegal to evict someone as of September 4.
In the middle of the biggest health and economic crisis in the history of the United States, many people lost their jobs and were about to loose their homes as government help ran out. To prevent millions of people becoming homeless, the Center for Disease Control issued a federal ban on all evictions nationwide for renters.
According to the Federal Registry, this order went into effect Friday, September 4 and the federal ban on evictions last until December 31, 2020. This means although people can't pay their rent they still can't be evicted from their homes and thrown into the streets.
In Mississippi, no landlord can just change the locks or kick someone out event after serving them an eviction notice. That's actually illegal. The only legal way to evict someone from their home, whether it's a house or an apartment, is to take them to Justice Court where they have a right to dispute the evictions before a judge. Then the judge will decide if he/she will order an eviction or not. If the judge orders an eviction, the constable then goes to the home and remove the tenants, another name for people living at the residence.
However, that entire process has been halted on a federal level at the direction of the President of the United States by the Center for Disease Control because of a national health crisis. You don't have to have Covid-19 to qualify. All evictions due to non-payment are banned and as of this date, it has not been overruled by a federal court.
So then the question remains, "Why is Forrest County Justice Court still evicting people?" and "Why isn't Forrest County Justice Court informing people who have been evicted who come before them in their courts of their rights or the CDC Ban?" as the guidelines require.
Anyone who cannot pay their rent must simply print and sign a form from the CDC's website (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/declaration-form.pdf) and give it to their landlords. Upon giving it to their landlords, the landlords in turn are not suppose to file for an eviction with the courts. Even so, the courts are not suppose to execute and order people to be evicted out into the streets as mandated by the federal ban.
The Forrest County Justice Court is suppose to be the people's court elected by "the people" in which you're not suppose to even need a lawyer, although sometimes people choose to get legal representation anyway. However, speaking with numerous of sources including victims who wish not to be named, the court has become nothing more than "a rubber stamp for the rich and a hell house for the poor."
If you have been evicted despite the ban you can file an appeal with the Forrest County Justice Court, also known as Youth Court located at the Forrest County Youth Detention Center, within 30 days-60 days of the eviction. Once you file an appeal with the court, you eviction is automatically put on hold, which means you can't be put onto the streets, although in some cases landlords have with the Justice Court despite appeals to still execute evictions despite filing an appeal which is illegal.
You may also file a complaint against the judge who ordered your eviction by clicking here: https://www.judicialperformance.ms.gov/filing-complaint.
You may also contact the CDC who issued the federal ban on evictions by calling:1-800-232-4636.
We reached out to Forrest County Justice Court for questions and didn't get a response.