Indiana Justice Project (IJP) and the Notre Dame Clinical Law Center have issued a report on policy options to consider with regard to Indiana’s popular eviction sealing statute. Additionally, the report compares Indiana’s statute to similar statutes in several other states.

The report makes five recommendations:

· Seal all eviction records at the time of filing.

· Automatically seal, or automatically preserve sealing of, eviction records.

· Automatically seal all evictions after a period of years.

· Simplify the process for sealing evictions when a money judgment is satisfied or otherwise discharged.

· Create an explicit enforcement mechanism for improper sharing or usage of sealed eviction records.

IJP Executive Director, Adam Mueller states, “through our eviction sealing clinics, and conversations with attorneys and housing insecure individuals, we have come to understand how valuable sealing past eviction records is to Hoosiers. The recommendations we make are reasonable and practical steps to ensure the statute continues to work as intended.”

This report started as a class assignment in Professor David Pruitt’s Eviction Clinic at the Notre Dame Clinical Law Center, where students receive hands on training in representing individuals in eviction proceedings. Pruitt, who is also the director of the Clinical Law Center, states, “our students have seen the real-world implications for how Indiana courts handle the sealing of eviction records. This latest report continues our strong partnership with the Indiana Justice Project, which has been a consistent voice in proposing common sense solutions to better protect Indiana tenants.” IJP and the Notre Dame Clinical Law Center have worked in past on a report looking at Indiana eviction policy and practices as compared to the American Bar Association’s Eviction Guidelines.

IJP’s housing work is funded through a partnership with IU School of Medicine’s Grassroots Maternal and Child Health Initiative. We partner with the GMCHI on a HRSA Catalyst for Infant Health grant called Housing Equity for Infant Health. Professor Jack Turman Jr., Principal Investigator on the HRSA grant states, "Working to advance eviction sealing for pregnant individuals and their families living in Indiana is a vital step towards improving the health and wellness of these families and our state’s maternal and child health outcomes. Implementing easy, feasible processes for these families to seal previous evictions will help them secure safe, affordable, quality housing. This in turn will improve birth outcomes and improve child health and development. This is a big win for the families and our society. “

Contacts:

· Adam Mueller, Indiana Justice Project amueller@injp.org

· David Pruitt, Notre Dame Clinical Law Center david.r.pruitt.13@nd.edu

· Jack Turman, Jr, Grassroots Maternal and Child Health Initiative jaturman@iu.edu

Read the Full Report Here.

This article was written by Adam Mueller from the Indiana Justice Project.

Originally published by Notre Dame Law School at law.nd.edu on September 06, 2024.