Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Putting The Trial Penalty On Trial, David S. Abrams

All Faculty Scholarship

The "trial penalty" is a concept widely accepted by all the major actors in the criminal justice system: defendants, prosecutors, defense attorneys, court employees, and judges. The notion is that defendants receive longer sentences at trial than they would have through plea bargain, often substantially longer. The concept is intuitive: longer sentences are necessary in order to induce settlements and without a high settlement rate it would be impossible for courts as currently structured to sustain their immense caseload. While intuitively appealing, this view of the trial penalty is completely at odds with economic prediction. Since both prosecutors and defendants …

“But My Lease Isn’T Up Yet!”: Finding Fault With “No-Fault” Evictions, Eloisa Rodriguez-Dod

Faculty Publications

Historically, tenants could be evicted when their actions put them “at-fault.” Grounds for “at-fault” eviction (i.e., evictions for cause) include a tenant’s failure to pay rent, a tenant’s holding over after termination of the lease, a tenant’s material noncompliance with the lease agreement, and a tenant’s failure to maintain the premises materially affecting health and safety. Recently, some landlords have been evicting tenants for no fault of their own.

This article focuses on three reasons for attempted “no-fault” evictions: foreclosure of the premises, proposed sale of the premises, or intended re-occupancy by the landlord. Part II of this article provides …