Just this week, the city of Detroit implemented a new program called blight court to deal with abandoned and deteriorating buildings in the jurisdiction.  Blight "court" is actually a bit of a misnomer: the new program, modeled after the one the city of Chicago implemented in 1997, takes the issues of abandoned buildings and urban decay out of the courts and places them before the newly formed Department of Administrative Hearings. 

Owners of properties in violation of the code will be cited for civil offenses rather than criminal ones, and the administrative hearing officers who review the cases will impose civil penalties.  In the past, failure to appear in court for building violations could result in the issuance of an arrest warrant, but city law enforcement was unlikely to have the time or the resources to follow up on such matters.  Under the new program, homeowners who fail to appear before the blight court will find judgment automatically entered against them, and the administrative hearing officers will have the authority to order such remedies as the attachment of wages or bank accounts and placement of liens on any properties in the homeowner?s name. 

To read an article on the CNN web site about the new Detroit blight eradication program, please click on http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/12/30/blight.court.ap/index.html