How Eviction Court Data is Generated

“Eviction data” refers to any information related to the forced removal of a tenant from a home. This includes information related to landlords formally pursuing an eviction through the court system, as well as information related to landlords informally or illegally carrying out evictions outside the court system.¹ Eviction data can also refer to information about any stage of the eviction process, from an eviction notice posted on a tenant’s door to the physical removal of a tenant’s belongings from their home by law enforcement.

Despite the range of information that can qualify, the most commonly collected data on eviction is generated from eviction lawsuits heard in county-level civil courts.² As an eviction case makes its way through the court system, it amasses more and more information, comprising an eviction court record.³ Taken together, a court record should provide a thorough account of the key events and decisions related to the lawsuit, in theory providing housing entities with actionable information on formal evictions in their jurisdiction. In reality, just because information related to an eviction is collected by a court, that does not mean it is processed, stored, and shared in ways that make it useful for tracking and understanding evictions by the public.

“Just because eviction-related information is collected by a court doesn't mean it is stored and shared in ways that are useful for the public to track evictions.”

For information from eviction court cases to be of use, it must undergo several processes. First, information on eviction lawsuits is generated throughout the process, via court forms submitted by landlords and tenants, information entered manually by court clerks during court proceedings, and official court orders. This information then needs to be transferred into some kind of case management system, which is sometimes, but not always, electronic. Lastly, there needs to be court processes for making information related to eviction lawsuits accessible to those outside of the court system, including researchers, policymakers, legal service providers, social service providers, and other members of the public. The case management systems that courts use vary in their capacity to pull information and seamlessly run reports.

Many courts have the processes in place to transform the messy and unstandardized information embedded across court forms into actionable data that could help prevent unnecessary eviction. However, even when courts have robust processes in place to standardize and make eviction data useful, misalignment between what court eviction data tells us and the information needed to prevent unnecessary evictions is still likely to exist. This is in large part because courts’ primary purpose in collecting this information is to help schedule and process eviction cases—and not for the purposes of generating and sharing the data needed by housing entities to track and prevent evictions.

The utility of court eviction data is largely guided by processes related to how courts generate, store, and share. By standardizing how eviction data is collected and shared, courts can also benefit by increasing the efficiency of screening cases and ensuring more unified outcomes across judges and jurisdictions. Despite some misalignment, there are plenty of opportunities to improve court eviction data, even amidst the variation in eviction data quality and availability across the country.⁴