As a student, you will have to deal with a lot of nonsense coming from all sides: your roommate, your landlord, your cable company. At some point, somebody will likely owe you money and not want to give it back to you. So this is where the Small claims court comes in.
What is the Small claims court?
Small claims court is a special court where disputes are resovled informally. There are no lawyers; just you, the defendant and the judge. As an individual, you may not sue for more than $7,500 in Small Claims Court. If you want to sue for more, you have to go to the superior court.
How do I sue someone in Small claims Court?
1) Go to the courthouse of the geographic area of where the defendant lives or where the incident about which you are suing occurred. Locate the small claims filing window where you can get the forms and information necessary to file. The clerk may be able to assist you if you have questions.
2) The defendant must know about your lawsuit. This has to be done according to the rules or your case may be dismissed or delayed. The defendant needs to get a copy of the claim. You cannot give it to them yourself. Ask the court clerk what options are available for you.
3) Once at the small claims trial, you should be prepared to plead your case to the judge clearly and briefly. Try to have the facts written down with dates and times. You also should bring with you to the small claims trial all the documents supporting your case (the original and 2 copies if possible), as well as the witnesses (if any) for your side. The judge can make the decision while you are in the small claims court or s/he may “take it under advisement” and inform you of the small claims decision by mail.
If the defendant loses, s/he may appeal the small claims decision. The plaintiff, however, may not appeal if s/he loses. The judgment form will advise you of some of the special rules regarding small claims court appeal.
If you have a judgment in your favor, you may use small claims court procedures to collect the judgment. Ask the small claims court clerk about what you can do to get your money.
Note: When you are in small claims court, only address the judge and only talk when you are asked a question. Do NOT get into a shouting match with the defendant; it would not help your case.
If you want to find out more information about small claims court, you can use the search box provided below.
20 Responses
Ben Saget
June 24th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
1I was trying to buy a house in Haiti, and there’s a problem the the house. I decide to not do the deal anymore. I sent a portion of the money to the dealer he leaves in Miami, I leave in New Jersey. I don’t know what I can do to have my money back. I don’t have any paper sign, I only have receipt from the bank that I made the transfer to him.
mercedes
August 26th, 2008 at 4:28 am
2I lent someone $2000.00 one year ago and she has not paid me back.
how do I sue this person to give me back my money.
She worked in the building I live as an Assistant Manager and she had access to everyone’s personal banking records. Obviously she no longer works there, because they found out she was hitting the tenants for money. I did not know this at the time, had I known, I would not lend her the money.
She claimed she was going through some personal problems and I felt sorry. Two weeks later she showed up with a brand new car. I wrote several letters asking her for my money but her response was she needed more time, well needdless to say, its been 2 years. Please advise. Thank you for your help. Please advise.
Aly
September 8th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
3If the house costs more than I BELIEVE its either over $500 or $1,000, which i’m sure it did, then the contract MUST be in writing. With not knowing the rest of the information and not being a lawyer I can’t really do much else. Look up the laws for contracts in your state and in his. Some states have made oral contracts invalid or w/e you would call it. I would suggest calling a lawyer for a consultation on the issue, make sure you take any e-mails, letters, etc between you and the dealer, as this will help find out if a written contract was formed. If it was in writing in one way or another it is possible for it to be valid.
Good luck.
Michael Mouzakitis
October 21st, 2008 at 6:05 pm
4I bought 4 tires from a tire dealer in Myrtle Beach. It turned out that these tires were manufactured January 2001 which of course the tire dealer did not tell me (I bought the tires July 2008). The tires were problematic from day one, they produced a thumping sound. I didn’t do anything about it the first month because my previous tires did a strong thumping sound due to natural wear and tare and I thought it was my imagination at the beginning. But after the first month i got suspicious so I went and had my car aligned. The noise did not stop so I had my tires balanced and rotated. Again the noise did not go away. I went to another tire dealer and he told me that tires that old loose their form due to being idle that long. It’s like sitting a doughnut up right; it eventually looses its roundness. He also told me tires older then 6-7 years should be discarded no matter how good they might look. The tire dealer refuses to take the tires back and give me a refund or exchange them with really new tires.
Mitch
October 25th, 2008 at 10:46 am
5my girlfreind and i were living with her mother in in her grandparents house. we moved out. the house is in an estate battle between the mother and the uncles. when we move out the mother refused to let us take our personal property claiming it was part of the estate. we have many witneses to state otherwise. so can we sue the mother for the cost of our propery that she refuses to relinquish, or would sue the estate?
Devin Morrison
January 4th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
6So i bought an XBOX 360 and a lot of the XBOX 360’s that are made even still are at an extremely high risk for getting overheated. (MICROSOFT knows it and they still make their damn product) I was wondering if it would be possible to sue them.
Trina
February 9th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
7My ex-boyfriend and I signed a one year lease in November, now he has moved out and left me with the monthy payments. Can I collect for the the remaining months that are due on the lease.
kwasi
March 2nd, 2009 at 7:43 am
8i purchased a blue ray player with the model #550, i originally thought i bought one with the model # 350. a friend of mine came to my house and took a look at my player and said he wanted the same one that i have so i took him to the store together with another friend. this friend of mine sees the player that he wanted but not the price he wanted to pay for it. the 550 is a bit more advanced than the 350 and ofcourse the price is different. he insisted that he wanted the 550 with a lower price nd i told him to just get the 350 because thats what i thought i had. he kept saying htat he wanted the 550, i once again told him the 350 is what i have and its only a little different from the 550. he still did not want to get the 350 so i tolt him thst if he gets the 350 and i happen to have the 550 i will gladly exchange with him, but he still did not buy the 350. so now he wants to bet $50 and i told him i will bet him $100 which at this point no bet was place because he did not put any money down for the bet. he just kept bothering me all night untile we got back to my house. we watched a movie and just when they were about to leave one of then grabed in a bear hug while the other grabed my player and ran out the house with it. now he does not want to give it back because he insists that i lost a bet, he still has the player and its been a while now and i do not want it back but the amount i paid for it and the amount of two dvds he took also. how do i g about with this issue in court?
Curtis
March 2nd, 2009 at 11:22 am
9I had paid a friend to fix my car then he got in trouble and went to prison for a couple months for a DUI then when he got out i was asking him about my car and when he went to jail he left my car at one of his friends house and now no ones knows where the car is. So i dont know if he sold my car or whatever, i just want to get money for the car and money for what i had paid him. All we had were verbal agreements, i have emails from him saying yeah i will pay you and other stuff about my car. You think my case would stand up in court and can i bring witnesses that where there.
Chellyse
March 4th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
10My boyfriend and I needed a roommate and Donte Culpepper’s little brother was looking for a place he asked how much rent was we said we wouldn’t charge a deposit rent and utilities were split between the three of us he agreed. we also told him we might move in a few months. a few months later we get the news we need to move out of state for my boyfriends job. the guy hasn’t paid us a dime for the 2 months he lived there. I had felt so bad for him I even cooked a few meals for him. now he is giving us the run around and said well we didn’t find him a place to stay after we moved away so he isn’t going to pay us. what to I do? between the two of us he owes us $800. Do I have a case and if so how do I go about doing this now that I live in another state?
jonn
March 10th, 2009 at 12:10 am
11i am an international student and lost my back pack containing my passport and all my certificates regarding education.The guy who stolen my back pack was caught by police and taken him to court.The judge ordered a compensation of 500 dollars.now can i sue him in small claims court?
BRETT TRISSEL
April 27th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
12I WAS DRIVING A CAR THAT WAS NOT INSURED, A CAR IN A PARKING LOT OPENED THERE DOOR INTO THE CAR I WAS DRIVING. THE CAR I WAS DRIVING IS MY GIRLFRIENDS. DOES SHE HAVE TO SUE FOR THE DAMAGES OR DO I HAVE TO?
michael
May 15th, 2009 at 9:59 am
13ok here is my problem a guy hit my car about 1 month ago … his insurance company that i never heared about… said the guy had a coverage of 10k and since 2 cars were involved mine and another guy they will have to split it in terms of how much each car needs to get fixed!!!….. now they havn’t contacted me yet and they are taking forever to answer my calls ….what can i do ? sue them? sue the guy hit me? my car is screwed and i’m not getting any compensation of any kind
Danielle
May 17th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
14My mom paid this company to fix our basement because it was cracking. But my mother being the gullible one she is, paid the company in full before the job was done. After recieving the payment the company never came back to finish the job. What should we do?
Ciro
May 28th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
15In feb. 2008 I was trying to fix a car i have. I asked a mechanic i know through my in-laws If he can repair vehicle. the mechaic priced the repair to cost $!,000.00. I wrote the mechaic a check
for the $1000.00. It is now May 2009 and my vehicle is still not fix. What can i do to get my money back?
rushay huertas
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:40 am
16March 1st 2009 I lent my aunt 1800 dollars as a verbal agreement we made because I felt bad for her cause she told me a pity story how she was having personal problems and she cudnt pay her rent(which soon I found out was a lie)she just wanted my money she told me she pay me back weekly which she never did she never even payed me 1 cent I waited patiently 4 about a month and a half den I asked her wen was she going to pay me back I lived with her for about 2mths and moved out cause I felt like she was takin advantage of me n not more den a week she stopped answering my fone calls messages etc. She also stole a 900 dollar laptop from me and other belonging that I left which she never let me get,I also have witnesses who where there to verify that I lent her the money is this a good case should I sue please advice thank you
milly
July 14th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
17Can a person sue me for interest on a loan even if they dont have a lenders license
arash
August 24th, 2009 at 10:49 am
18i worked for some one for 8 months . at first this guy was late on ever paycheck. well it was not a paycheck he transfered money from his account to mine .then he was late every week .as a resalt i was charged from my bank and every bill i had late fees and overdraft fees.after 4 months this guy witch was my firend cost me over $1800.00 in penalties and at this time my wife decided to divorce me . i gess to much problems for her to handel . it brok my herart and destroyed my life . so my dear friend proposed we do the job on a set price and i accepted.he owed me 1000 at the time and he sould have give me 1/3 of the set price to start. he didnt .we did over 2/3 of the job and i was getting kicked out of my apt so i asked him to please pay me for the work i did so far 2/3 and the money he owes me from past .after few days and me beging him he paid the 1000 so i could pay my 32 days late rent .job is finished and every day he says ill pay tomarow and days and weeks gone by and nothing. as the result im loosing my home my account my phone and everything els and he dose not want to pay . what can i do please some one tell me what to do thanks
forever1
September 3rd, 2009 at 9:30 am
19i let a friend borrow $250.00 a year ago and she still hasnt paid me and 2months ago i got her out of jail and paid $300.00 total she owes me $550.00 she has been ignoring my emails and disconnected both of her phones. will i have to pay anything in order to sue her?
how to get your ex boyfriend back
September 20th, 2012 at 4:02 pm
20how to get your ex boyfriend back…
How to Sue Somebody in Small Claims Court? | Students In USA…
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