Thousands of DC renters are evicted every year. Do they all know to show up to court?

In D.C., tenants are supposed to find out about eviction cases—which are currently halted by the coronavirus pandemic—via private process servers, who are hired directly by landlords (or their lawyers) to deliver summonses. They let tenants know about their cases and tell them exactly when to come to court. Earlier this year, Superior Court also began sending notice of suits by mail.

But the only evidence that a tenant was informed of their eviction hearing is a document called an affidavit of service, in which a process server swears that they served the summons. Upon closer examination, though, many of these affidavits are demonstrably false.