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Once the court date is scheduled, be sure you arrive early. Get there without being late, because the occupant will arrive as well, and you guys will have a few minutes to speak to each other and possibly settle your matter.

If you can work something out on the first appearance, some kind of permanent agreement, you then would enter the court hearing room in front of the judge and you basically would tell the judge that you've worked out the problems. The judge will then document the worked out agreement. Some courts enable you to go to what's referred to as arbitration, and you would then have a court appointed arbitrator – not a judge, decide your case. An arbitrator is someone who will sit between the two of you and will essentially help you come to an agreement.

Then quite often, depending on the petition drafted by your suffolk landlord tenant lawyer, they might not show up at all. Probably about 40 to 50% of tenants never show up to court. Why? I have no idea, but renters fail to appear quite a bit. In that case, more than likely, unless you really, really screwed up – which I've done – the judge will award you everything you're searching for automatically.

Now, if you go in there and your lease is not up to date or signed, or if you've done something procedurally wrong, the judge will not award you that possession and that judgment at that point, which means you probably screwed something up quite good.

Be Forthright to the judge. That's the way the usual case functions best. When you're in front of a judge, I tell you and I advise this highly, be extremely forthright, but don't answer any questions the judge doesn't ask. One of the things I see a lot from young or new landlords is they'll suddenly just begin rambling on, speaking about this and that and the judge hasn't even really asked that much.

They'll say something, and then suddenly the judge will grasp onto it, and they'll say, "What did you just say?" Then boom, all of the sudden you said something you didn't mean to to say and you'll create certain troubles for yourself. When you're in court concerning the eviction ny process, be very polite, very affable, and respond only what the judge asks you.

If he asks you your name, "My name is Mike Lautensack." That's it. Shut your mouth. Don't say more. You don't have to startrambling at that point. Respond the question, but that's all you do. If you take that philosophy it will assist you tremendously in a court hearing.

 

 

 

Tags: evictions ny, long island evictions, new york evictions, suffolk landlord tenant lawyer