A casual users guide to small claims court

People are surprised when I tell them about my lawsuits. Well, I’ve sued a couple people, and come close once more. Even if you’re broke and busy, if you’re deft in the law, you are not powerless.

It is my hope that someone will read this, and the next time they feel they’re being exploited by a system or getting screwed over they will look up the law, try to understand their rights, and if they’ve been violated use the law to make it right. This is the mechanism by which exploitation is corrected.

The first one, my landlord in NYC. I lived in this little box of an apartment for two years. It was in the East Village, I liked it a lot to be honest. It was old and beat up, and was that way when I moved in. After my lease expired my landlord neglected to send me a new one, so it went month to month by default, which is nice for me. Eventually, it came time for me call it quits in New York.

I gave my landlord a month heads up, which is not required for a month to month lease, and asked for an inspection to see what I could patch up to get my full deposit back. Didn’t take, whatever. I move out, and am crashing with my buddy George for a month to save cash before I hop on my bike to cross the country. Landlord is dragging his feet to get me the deposit back. Text messages below.

So, I google “New York, Security Deposit Law”. And, wouldn’t ya have it, there is a great law protecting the rights of tenants. When you move out, the landlord has two weeks to give you an itemized deposit or they lose the right to deduct any money from it. Failure to do so means you can sue for double the cost of the deposit.

The two weeks come and go, and the landlord hasn’t paid up. Eventually, he gets back to me, and tells me he’s deducting $600 from the deposit for damage that was already there. Motherfucker. I politely make him aware of the law, he is steadfast, he has decided to try to fuck me over. So this is where the law comes in.

Small claims court is an inefficient, but powerful tool for righting these sorts of wrongs. It depends what state you are in, but the amount you sue someone for can be up to tens of thousands of dollars. The process should go like this:

·        Send a demand letter to the person who you’re having issues with. Or, hand deliver if you want them to see the fire in your eyes. The letter should include the law that protects your rights in that situation and the evidence you have it was violated. You want to convince the person that if they don’t come around to your point of view, you will sue them, you will win, and it will cost them more than what they owe you.

·        Hopefully they pay up, and you go your separate ways

·        If they don’t, it’s time to get going on a lawsuit. Find the county court where your case will be filed. Find an address for the person or business you are trying to sue.

·        Google the forms you need, print them out, and fill them.

·        Go to the courthouse, and talk to the small claims desk, tell them you’re filing a case, and pay the fee. You’ll get papers with the information of your trial, and you’ll have to make the other person aware of when the court date is.

·        Now the next step depends on the situation. If you think the person is slippery, it’ll be better to serve them the papers before they know the suit is started. If not, just knowing that the legal gears are in motion is a powerful motivating force to hash it out.

·        Serving papers depends on the state, in CA someone who isn’t you has to bring them to the person on your behalf. You can pay a sheriff to do this, which is fun. Using a friend works too. There are also processes for mailing the letters.

·        Now, it’s best to try to settle. The standard of evidence in small claims court is a “Preponderance of Evidence”. This means that if the judge believes your version is closer to the truth, and your rights were violated, you win the money. This is very different than “Beyond a reasonable doubt”. You don’t actually need all that much evidence if it’s a simple case.

·        If you’re sure you can prove your case, there’s a good chance that you’ll win. But it takes time to go to court, it’s not a good vibe, and is best avoided.

·        If you win, hopefully they pay up because enforcing a judgment can be complicated. You have to get a writ of execution from the court (just file some more papers), and either find out where they bank and pull from there directly, file for wage garnishment, or other unpleasant measures.

In the end, the NYC landlord paid up after I filed a suit and gave him evidence that he was wrong.

The next suit was someone who hit me on my motorcycle. It was idiotic, I was driving down a two-way street, he was pulling out of a parking lot on the other side. I’m not sure what he was doing but he crossed a lane of traffic to hit the back left side of my motorcycle. Bike went down, I had a few minor scrapes, and the bike had some larger scrapes. I got his license info, and number, and he said he had geico insurance.

I filed a claim with insurance, but after a lot of talking on the phone it was clear to me that he didn’t actually have an insurance policy that would cover this. Fuck. I try texting him about it to start figuring out how he’ll pay me. He blocks my number. Fuck. Message him on instagram, blocked, fuck. I have friends message him, blocked. (Thanks Max).

So I get a quote for the repairs from a shop that would work with insurance, write up a demand letter, and file a suit. It takes 3 tries to serve him and get a court date. I win in court, of course, and still blocked. The judge was cool, he also had a motorcycle, and agreed with basically everything I said. Open and shut. Here’s what I prepared for court.

The next step is to get a writ of execution which allows me to enforce the judgement. This is a neat little aside, the person who enforces the writ is the sheriff’s office. The sheriff in the county is an elected position, and they were very professional. This position is responsible for doing all the civil procedure stuff, it carries a lot of power.

I get an order for wage garnishment from his tattoo shop, they deliver it, no response. Now the tattoo shop has opened itself to legal liability, and I write them a demand letter. Next day, I’m unblocked, we set up a time and he pays me the judgment.

Unpleasant, took a long time, but I got the money.

The last one went the smoothest, it was a towing case.

There’s an empty parking lot from a closed grocery store behind my place, I have an underground spot but it takes a lot of maneuvering to get in. I had been having people park there for months. I told a girl I was seeing she could park there. We hang out, etc, she’s leaving my place around 2 AM, we walk out and the car is gone. Fuck! I call the towing company, they did tow it, they say I have to pay cash to get it back. $400. Sketchy, but she wanted her car back, it was my fault and I wanted to go to sleep so I got the cash, took her on my bike and we went and got it.

I go home, unhappy, and I read up on the towing laws in CA. They broke a couple. For one, in CA towing companies are legally required to let you use credit. Two, towing companies need a written authorization from the property owner, which has which time you arrived, pictures, a signature from the owner. They have to give that to you before payment. Given it was 2 AM, I doubt they had it and even if they did they failed to give it to me.

Each infraction is a misdemeanor, which means the city can prosecute for $5k for each one, and 3 months in jail. They’re also a civil violation, which means I can sue for 4x the cost of towing for each, the $400 dollar towing fee is worth $3,200 if I go after it.

I call, and tell them they messed up and I want my money back. They’re not happy. I write up a demand letter, and hand deliver it to them.

At this point they start calling the girl because I’m too “hostile and aggressive”. They offer her half, I say no deal, its all coming back. They fold, I get the money.

Whenever I see people walking around that lot looking for their car I advise them on how to get it back for free. Am thinking about setting up a sting operation, if anyone is interested.

Small claims court is how you resolve a contractor messing up a job, an unfair medical bill (check the podcast episode linked), a good-for-nothing landlord, etc. Don’t just grin and bear it, exercise your rights.