Small Claims Court Victory!!!

RickJ · Thu 26/01/2006 16:05:23

I invite you to share my victory in court (but unfortunately not the money).

I am about $2000 richer today than I was yesterday. My wife did some work for a translation company and they refused to pay her the last $1000 bucks. After spending much time and effort talking on the phone, writing letters, etc I filed suit in small claims court. I asked for the money the owed to my wife and to be compensated for the expense incurred trying to collect. The other party never showed up ( I think she wrote a letter to the Judge explaining how important her time is ... hehe) and the Judge gave us everything we asked for plus about $100 more (probably just to show how important time in court is).

The neat thing about small claims court in the US is that the person named in the suit has to show up in court. They can't send an attorney in their place or bring one with them. Normally you have to file suit where the person who is being sued lives, however, in the case of a company, the suit can be filed anywhere the company does business. I our case the owner of the company we sued lives a few hundred miles away from us. Because the company does business in our city and because the work in question was performed in our city that is where we filed.

Now if some monster company does something to really screw you, you can take them to samll claims court and they will have to come there. For the small price of about $50 bucks you can have the satisfaction of having a uniformed law enforcement person had deliver your invitation to court to the MAN and have a chance to ask the MAN face to face why he did what he did. Just make sure the facts and the law are on your side.

Good luck to all. Btw, I am 3-0 in small claims court, not a bad track record eh?

ildu · Thu 26/01/2006 16:14:19

Wow. God bless the US justice system.

Nikolas · Thu 26/01/2006 16:39:02

I remember you mentioning small claims court before!

Great Story! I wish Europe had such courts...

Ubel · Thu 26/01/2006 16:45:05

Hah, neat. Congratulations there Rick.

MrColossal · Thu 26/01/2006 16:51:21

Quote from: RickJ on Thu 26/01/2006 16:05:23
I am about $2000 richer today than I was yesterday.

Ã,Â My wife did some work for a translation company and they refused to pay her the last $1000 bucks.

Ahem! Your WIFE is now 2000 dollars richer!

Congrats!

scotch · Thu 26/01/2006 16:53:13

The UK has the same system, and perhaps other countries, Nikolas.

Nikolas · Thu 26/01/2006 16:56:23

Really?

So I can claim money from the guy responisble and not some $^$&^**$ lawyer? And if he/she doesn't show up I win?

I honestly didn't know that. And I don't think that Greece has such a thing, but I'm ready to be mistaken again...

SSH · Thu 26/01/2006 17:09:40

In the UK, though, it is your responsibility to make sure that the other guy gets the summons. The police dont do it for you.

See also: http://www.bbc.co.uk/crime/law/smallclaimscourt.shtml
http://www.compactlaw.co.uk/tiscali/smcq4.html

Squinky · Thu 26/01/2006 19:00:03

Same here, really. You can hire a deputy to do it for you, or even a privately run business can do it, but it is still ultimately the responsibility of the plantiff.

I used to have to serve papers on people....Sure makes you popular...

Oh and congrats Rick!

Traveler · Thu 26/01/2006 21:24:05

Heheh, congrats! This was fun to read. I'm thinking about biting Epson these days...

RickJ · Fri 27/01/2006 06:25:20

Quote
In the UK, though, it is your responsibility to make sure that the other guy gets the summons. The police dont do it for you.

Yeah, I had the Sheriff serve the papers. So a uniformed policeman went to their place of business and asked for the owner by name. The officer was most likely (Squinky may be able to comment on this) shown to the individuals office where the summons was hand delivered, leaving the rest of the employees wondering what the $%#@ is going on. Now the really good part is that since I won the case the cost of the service, including the postage, was added to the amount I asked for. I believe the judge was a bit miffed about the letter the other party apparently wrote explaining how here time was too important to waste appearing in his court, so he neglected that the amount I asked for already included those costs and the filing fee and added them in again.

I guess it's best to not piss off the judge.

Anyway thanks for the congrats and I hope my sucesses will be an inspiration or at least consolation for any of you who may find yourself in such a situation at some point in your life.

SSH · Fri 27/01/2006 10:25:12

Well, since our landscape gardener has just shafted us, I'm about to try this out. Seems that the rules are different in Scotland: you can only claim up to Â£750! (Â£5000 in England and Wales). Still, I was thinking of Â£700 anyway, but...

Expenses are limited to Â£75 too, so I hope that it doesn't cost too much to get him served and reclaim the cash if he doesn't pay up (which I wouldn't be surprised at). I'm aure we'll win the case, as he never once made the times he would be at work, so if he can make a court appointment, I'd be flabbergasted.

MrColossal · Fri 27/01/2006 17:01:22

Quote from: RickJ on Fri 27/01/2006 06:25:20
I hope my sucesses will be an inspiration.Ã,Â Ã,Â

Ahem! Your wife's success!

RickJ · Fri 27/01/2006 17:19:08

Quote
Ahem! Your wife's success!

Hehe, I guess I couldn't have been able to do it without her.

Quote
Expenses are limited to Â£75 too, so I hope that it doesn't cost too much to get him served and reclaim the cash if he doesn't pay up (which I wouldn't be surprised at).

The other thing that is neat over here is that once you have a judgement, then the other party is obligated to pay any additional collection costs. So what one does is wait 30 days until the possibility of the case being appealed has expired, send one letter asking for immediate payment, and then turn it over to a collections laywer or company. The laywer will then start attaching their assets until the judement and his fees are paid.

Squinky · Fri 27/01/2006 18:44:21

Man rick, next time I need to file in small claims court, you are so going to have to drive down here, heh.

Most of the time when you serve papers it is just a simple process of going to the persons home or workplace, walking up to people in uniform and asking if that is them, then you go through the checking of I.D.s then hand them the papers.....pretty boring, but people get all upset, for some crazy reason, heh....

When I was second in command at the detention facility I worked at, by county law we were required to charge any sentenced inmate 25 bucks a day (up to 500 dollars total, so you only got charged for a max of 20 days per senttence) to cover the countys expenses.

Of course, people in jails typically don't care to/don't have the money to pay these fee's so I had to do the small claim deal with them. Since they weren't businesses I could only really go after the ones living in my area, since any others required filing somewhere way out of my area....

Huw Dawson · Fri 27/01/2006 18:56:49

America is pretty neat with some of it's laws. That small claims court one is a classic example. I'm not so fantastic with the UK's laws, but you don't get the same "Piss off such and such and you'll be sorry", because I believe the Judge is a different role in Britain? So in actually the company's dealing with about 10 or so indifferent jury members...

Still a nice story. Congratulations to your wife!

Advice to do with money:
1) Take a holiday
2) Buy a new computer!

or, my personal evil preference:L

3)Hire a group of opera singers to go to their HQ and sing "Don't piss off the judge" to the boss.

- Huw

Pumaman · Fri 27/01/2006 19:51:47

Congrats, though of course actually getting the money from them after you win the court case is quite another matter.

Now, the important question is, was it Judge Judy Sheindlin presiding?