An extra 200 deputy district judges have been drafted in to help with housing possession cases, which were expected to resume today  following a six-month moratorium.

The judicial back-up was revealed in a document drawn up by a cross-sector working group convened by the master of the rolls outlining overall arrangements for possession proceedings.

An immediate surge of evictions is considered unlikely, as the document states that claims brought before 3 August will not be listed, relisted or referred to a judge until a party serves a reactivation notice. A party filing and serving a reactivation notice must propose new dates for directions and a proposed hearing date, or state that an existing hearing can be met. The arrangements also include a review date before the case proceeds to substantive hearing.

Court centres will, as far as possible, allocate to possession proceedings the same number of courtrooms and days per week as before March.

The preferred starting point for the opening months is to use full-time district judges and deputy district judges who sit extensively at the particular court centre. ‘In addition, a cadre of 200 additional deputy district judges (and property tribunal judges) has been assembled to assist as required,’ the document says.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and Ministry of Justice are funding an independent facilitated negotiation/mediation pilot.

If the duty scheme solicitor thinks a case has a reasonable chance of being settled, but the case is too challenging to be resolved by negotiation on the review date itself, the duty solicitor may refer the case to the pilot. The claimant and defendant must agree to participate in mediation within the next seven days after the review date.

The pilot will deal with a maximum of 7,000 cases. Details of how the pilot is being funded and will operate are still being finalised.

Law Society president Simon Davis said the changes to the possession procedures are a positive step ’but they cannot replace legal advice in achieving access to justice. More needs to be done by government departments to support tenants at this time, to prevent them losing their homes and to stop an increase in homelessness. They will also have a limited impact where mandatory evictions, such as [section 21 of the Housing Act], remain available to landlords.

’Allowing judicial discretion in all current possession proceedings will help to reduce homelessness and encourage better relationships between tenants and landlords. This must be considered if these changes are going to have the intended impact.’