VALLEYWIDE : Judge Upholds Law on Eviction Actions

A Superior Court judge Tuesday rejected a bid by a group of Los Angeles apartment owners to overturn a state law that restricts the release of information about eviction lawsuits involving potential tenants.

The ruling by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ronald M. Sohigian upholds a state law that went into effect Jan. 1. It prevents credit-reporting agencies from releasing information on pending or dismissed eviction actions involving potential tenants.

His ruling rebuffed a challenge by the Apartment Assn. of Greater Los Angeles. Sohigian is scheduled to hear a similar but separate challenge from a Van Nuys-based tenant-screening agency, U. D. Registry, on June 19.

The law, sponsored by Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Los Angeles), is designed to prevent tenants from being blacklisted because they have been involved in an eviction proceeding. Under the law, tenant-screening agencies are allowed to report only cases in which a tenant lost an eviction proceeding. Cases that are settled, dismissed or won by the tenant cannot be reported.