When a person has to take a day off work, pay for a bus ticket and arrange childcare to appear in court to answer for a debt they got behind on or an eviction lawsuit, they often don’t show up — and that choice almost always leads to their problems multiplying.
Harris County justice of the peace candidate Davis Mendoza Darusman says there’s a simple way to solve that problem: Offer court proceedings over Zoom for every docket, without requiring special permission. Of the 16 JP courts in Harris County, just three judges consistently employ this practice, and Darusman would like to become the fourth.
Three scenarios — debt collection, eviction lawsuits and minor traffic offenses — account for 94 percent of the cases heard by local justices of the peace, according to court data. One in three Harris County residents has a debt in the collections process. More than 75,000 eviction lawsuits were filed locally last year. And pretty much everyone has had a traffic ticket at some point in their lives.
So why is no one talking about the eight JP races up for grabs in November? Anthony Rios, co-founder of the Houston Progressive Caucus, says they should be.
“Evictions are something that we’re really interested in because there’s an affordable housing crisis across the country and a lot of people are unfortunately facing homelessness,” he said. “We want to encourage people to try to look at that from a humanitarian perspective. With debt collections, you might have someone who’s being hounded by debt collectors in a really unfair and malicious way. A good JP is going to put a stop to that. JPs are able to affect people’s lives in very direct and material ways. Housing and shelter are the most basic needs, and JPs are at the core of those issues.”
The Houston Progressive Caucus, which supports candidates and policies that elevate the working class, endorsed three JP candidates last month, including Darusman, who’s running for Precinct 5 Place 2. Darusman also secured endorsements from the Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation, Houston LGBTQ+ Political Caucus, Houston Black Democrats and the Center for Freethought Equality PAC.
The 28-year-old first-time candidate has lived in the Houston area since 2005, when his parents — one from Indonesia, one from Mexico — moved him and his brother from California.
He says he’s running for JP because he’s seen how inefficient the courts are. Judges have the ability to offer virtual hearings — access to a Zoom account and livestream service are included in the courts’ budgets — but choose not to or allow it only by special request. It makes the process more cumbersome and expensive, ultimately punishing the poor, Darusman said.
He added that it’s particularly offensive to those who have received an eviction notice and have to appear in court immediately or face losing their home. Some courts opt to offer eviction diversion programs where a landlord and tenant can work out a payment plan or an alternative so the renter’s credit isn’t ruined. The court Darusman hopes to represent now requires special permission for a Zoom hearing and no eviction diversion program.
“These JP courts, I believe, are the frontlines of the homelessness crisis and the housing crisis, especially in Houston, which has the highest poverty rate of the top 25 most populous cities in America,” Darusman said. “There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be offering these solutions.”
Justices of the Peace in Texas are referred to as judges, but many are not attorneys and don’t have courtroom experience. They make about $189,000 per year and earn extra money from performing wedding ceremonies. Darusman said if elected, he’ll donate the fee from any wedding ceremony performed during weekday business hours back to the court.
The court he’s running to represent sees more eviction cases than any of the 16 JP courts in Harris County. There are two judges in each of eight precincts. The “lower half,” meaning Place 2 for Precincts 1 through 8, will all be on the ballot this year, with primaries in March and a general election in November.
Darusman will face former JP chief clerk Lisa Jefferson in the Democratic primary, and the winner will go up against Republican incumbent Bob Wolfe or challenger Mark Fury for a four-year term. Early voting begins Tuesday, February 17.
Jefferson said at an Indivisible Katy candidates forum on Tuesday that she plans to improve efficiency by eliminating the backlog in Precinct 5 Place 2’s “megacourt,” which sees about 1,400 eviction cases per month. She said she’ll do that by splitting one massive docket into three and ensuring that cases aren’t rushed and translators are available.
Darusman says he knows his plan to improve efficiency will work because some judges are already doing it.
Judges Steve Duble, Wanda Adams and Dolores Lozano have successful models for eviction diversion programs and hold virtual hearings without requiring a request for special access. Those judges also allow pro bono lawyers with the Houston Eviction Advocacy Center to hang around the courtroom and represent clients on the fly, often resulting in agreements that keep the tenant off the streets.
Restricting access to a court hearing, particularly for people who are unable to pay for childcare or a bus ticket or take time off work, is “gatekeeping justice,” Darusman said.
“Especially in Harris County, where we have the second largest immigrant community and population in America and one of the largest ICE presences in America, we find that undocumented residents just aren’t comfortable coming to court,” he said. “They’re too afraid to come to court, so they lose their cases by default. No undocumented resident is going to send a letter to the court and say, ‘Hey, I’m undocumented and I’m scared of ICE. Can I get the Zoom link, please?’”
Corisha Rogers, who co-chairs the Houston Progressive Caucus endorsements committee, said JPs have the ability to “provide resources and actively help people improve their lives.”
“As things get more and more expensive, we need people in office who care about making things more affordable,” she said.
Darusman also wants to end agreements with debt collectors who get 30 percent administrative fees for traffic offense fines that have gone into collections.
“What is striking about, particularly traffic offenses, is that if you’re unable to pay, they tack on a 30 percent administrative fee,” he said. “If you still don’t pay, they can issue an arrest warrant and throw you in jail and further overcrowd the jail. It’s really just punishing people for being poor. I would be inclined, unless a higher court tells me otherwise, not to issue arrest warrants for inability to pay traffic tickets.”
“These are people who are already struggling to get by,” the candidate added. “If they could pay the traffic tickets in the first place, they would do that.”
Darusman works as a community organizer and nonprofit leader and says he offers the perspective of someone who’s looking out for “our most struggling and vulnerable communities.” As a renter, he said he knows how hard it is to stay ahead of the bills and plan for home ownership.
“Eviction hits close to home for me because I have a lot of friends and neighbors going through that,” he said. “Depending on which court they’re in, they could have a lot of support and services that are offered to them — or nothing. In a time of rising rents and rising debts, we really can’t afford four more years of the status quo.”
For many Houstonians, the Justice of the Peace court is their first and only interaction with the government, Darusman said. Many of the people in eviction court have lost a job recently and are trying to get back on their feet. Children are involved in most of the eviction cases in Harris County, according to the Houston Eviction Advocacy Center.
“Many people are a paycheck away from missing rent and ending up on the streets,” Darusman said. A lot of working-class residents aren’t able to maintain savings, “or it’s dwindling or it’s going to debt collectors, he added.
It’s up to the judge’s discretion whether they want to provide evictees with resources like rental assistance programs and job opportunities. A court date can be set within six days of an eviction lawsuit being filed, which, according to Darusman, doesn’t give people enough time to make arrangements.
“Virtual court access reduces the number of defaults,” Darusman said, noting that about 40 percent of eviction cases are ruled in favor of the landlord because the tenant doesn’t appear in court. “It builds trust in the courts. I believe in sustainable reforms.”
The Houston Eviction Advocacy Center reports that 89 percent of the cases that are mediated in eviction diversion are dismissed by the landlord or settled with an agreement. Darusman said that in his conversations with property owners, he learned that “no one likes evictions.”
“They’re expensive, time-consuming, and it’s a difficult legal process,” he said. “Did I mention it’s expensive? All parties benefit from having an eviction diversion program. About 80 percent of the people going through eviction are non-white. They disproportionately impact women, especially single mothers, children and people with physical and mental disabilities.”
Darusman acknowledges that justices of the peace have to follow the law and consider situations in which a property owner hasn’t been paid for several months.
“I believe that fairness and compassion are required,” he said. “It’s really about helping people before they get to court and even before they receive their eviction filing. It’s about letting people know about tenant rights, having community events and apartment tours. I’m very committed to not only presiding on the bench in the courts but outside of the courts. Community outreach is essential.”
If elected, Darusman says he would be the youngest sitting Harris County justice of the peace and the first Asian American JP in the county. In the particular court he’s running for, he’d be the first Hispanic, the first second-generation American and the first openly LGBTQ+ judge. And, he emphasizes, it’s time for a change.
“If we have four more years of the status quo, we’re going to see a lot more people on the streets,” he said.
This article appears in Private: Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2026.