I would like to share my situation to give some insight on what’s going on in Mississippi courts. I just left court an hour ago. This is the second time my landlord has filed for eviction during the pandemic. We filed the moratorium in October and had the first case dismissed. We paid rent to date up until last month. Our landlord said she would find a reason to evict us and she did. She said we had an extra dog than was approved 7 years ago, when the lease was initiated; however, she was aware of the “extra” dog and had no problem with it until last month. To get past the moratorium, which says you cannot evict for nonpayment, she found another reason—basically made up one—to evict us. It is plainly obvious the reason we were evicted was not because of our dog, but because we were behind on rent. Now my family of four has just one week to move and nowhere to go.

When we went to court, the judge informed us that we were having a trial at that moment. We were not allowed to see the “evidence” submitted from the landlord, which included text messages from the landlord to us and pictures of our home. We were not allowed to submit evidence and not allowed to rebuke the monetary balance the landlord wrote while standing at the judge’s table. She literally wrote down something, maybe numbers, and the judge awarded her the maximum amount allowed by the court. On top of that, she gave us ONE WEEK to move a family of four during a pandemic. We have no resolution or options available. This occurred in DeSoto County, MS Justice Court.