McLean County Circuit Court Judge David Butler signs dozens of orders of evictions each year as the judge who hears the bulk of landlord tenant cases for the county. He said it is rarely easy. "When you put a single mother out who has one or six kids, it is always hard. I've had numerous cases where it's hard to enter an order of possession that tells somebody you have seven days to move everything you own out of this apartment or this house without knowing where to put it," Butler said. Butler was interviewed on GLT's Sound Ideas at the end of a four-part investigative series, Landlord v. Tenant , about low-income rental housing in Bloomington-Normal. Butler said landlords usually prevail in cases in which tenants haven't paid rent, even if the tenants have a legitimate financial reason for not keeping their rent current. He said he tries to mitigate the outcome for tenants by informing them at their first hearing in court that if the landlord prevails, they will likely only have
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