If you are one of the many tenants in Tupper Lake who has been evicted, and all you received in the mail, from the town or village court, was a small claims form instructing you to report to court, you have been unlawfully evicted from your home and have the right to file a complaint with the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct.

You can go to the commission’s website and file your complaint online. It is fast and easy. You may also like to know that a justice in Clinton County was removed from the bench by the commission for doing unlawfully evictions. A justice in St. Lawrence County, who was under investigation for doing unlawful evictions, resigned his post. Once he resigned his post, the commission dropped its investigation.

When I was a landlord, three times I brought the legal eviction forms to the village court, and three times the village justice rejected my forms and sent small claims forms to the tenants, each time evicting the tenants without following the legal eviction process. When my forms were rejected the third time, I sent a copy of the eviction laws to the village justice and asked him to process my paperwork, he refused and instead sent me a small claims form with a yellow sticky note on it, which read, sign and return ASAP.

If you are a landlord and had to evict tenants in the town or village court, you might like to know that I filed a Freedom of Information Law request with both courts. I asked two simple questions: How many evictions has your court done in the last five years, and what forms were used for these evictions? Both courts refused to comply with my FOIL request and refused to the give the number of evictions. The town justice replied that his court does not handle the paperwork for evictions, stating that the lawyers for the landlords do so. How many landlords use lawyers for a simple eviction? A person can get these forms online. I never did an eviction in the town court, but a few years ago, I did asked the court for eviction paperwork. I was told that the town court only uses small claim forms for evictions, and this summer, at a small claims hearing, the town justice stated that his court sends out the paperwork for evictions by regular mail and registered mail. Why would he make this statement if the lawyers for the landlords handle the eviction paperwork?

The village justice claimed that his court hands out a eviction packet, with the forms and procedure for evictions, and does not use small claim forms for evictions. It was clear to me the village justice did not understand my requets for the eviction forms used in his court in the last five years, instead supplied the forms he now uses. I can only conclude he forgot I did three evictions in his court. The village justice can prove I’m wrong, supply the forms used for the evictions I submitted to his court, where my tenants were evicted, in June 2014, September 2014 and February 2015.

If you are a landlord in Tupper Lake and had to evicted tenants, did the courts use small claim forms? Are both justices telling the truth? If not, do you want people who provide false and misleading information, as your justice? You also have the right to file a complaint or just write a simple letter to the editor stating small claim forms were also used for your evictions. You can do this at their website.

If I am wrong, both courts can simply supply the number of people evicted in their courts and a copy of the paperwork for each eviction. I believe this information is a matter of public record.

Mark St. Louis lives in Tupper Lake.