Filing a small claim in small claims court is a very easy, smooth and inexpensive process. This is a legal process to recover small claims amounts very quickly, efficiently and cheaply without hiring the small claims attorney. A small claims lawsuit does not require a complex process. You as an individual and business can recover the claimed amount in an easy and fast way. Each small claims court has a small claims limit that you must follow.
Millions of small claims cases are filed every year in the USA. These small claims are ranging from $2,500 to $5,000. In this article, we will discuss step by step guide to file the small claims in an effective way. After reading this article, you will be able to file your small claims by yourself very easily and effectively.
What are Small Claims?
Small claims are the minor disputes that involve little amount of money. This is a legal process to recover small claims amounts very quickly, efficiently and cheaply. You as an individual can recover your claimed amount in an easy and fast way. Businesses can also recover their minor claimed amount.
Following are some common types of small claims:
- Unpaid debts such as outstanding bills and unpaid loans, etc.
- Property damages, such as payment for repairs or replacement of the property that has been damaged.
- Breach of contract, such as if a party fails to fulfill the terms of an agreement.
- Security deposit disputes, such as a situation where property owners do the wrong action and do not pay the security deposit.
- Personal injury, such as any minor injury, results in medical expense and your emotional distress.
What is a Small Claims Court?
Small claims courts are designed to file the small claims in an efficient way. Small claims courts are the part of the civil claims court. These courts are designed in such a way that you can resolve your minor amount claims very quickly and in a straightforward way. Small claims courts permit you to file the File Small Claims Cases by yourself, and you do not need to hire the small claims lawyer for this purpose. This makes the procedure cost-effective. Most small claims cases are resolved in a single hearing and avoid the complex process. Small claims courts have some key features as follows:
- A straightforward process of filing the small claims.
- Cost-effective, very cheap as compared to traditional courts.
- Having small claims limitations.
Small lawsuit claims courts are very calm courts to file the small claims in an efficient and cost-effective way. On the other hand, traditional courts have complex procedures and are costly as well.
Steps to File Small Claims
Following are the basic steps to file the small claims in small claims courts:
- Legal Requirements: First of all, you need to check whether you are legally eligible to file the lawsuit of small claims in small claims court. You must be an adult of 18 years old. You need to follow the small claims limit to file the small claims, which is based on the state and country. Your cause of action for filing the small claims must be a valid and legal claim, such as personal injury, property damage, breach of contract, or unpaid debts. If you fulfill the requirement of a legal claim, you can resolve your case easily.
- Identify the Correct Court: After checking with the legal requirements, you must file the small claim within the court’s jurisdiction. You can file the small claim in the small claims court where the defendant lives or where the incident occurred.
- Identify the Defendant: You must identify the defendant truly as it is very important. You must describe the defendant with proper and true information. Use the proper name and address of the defendant.
- Check the Small Claims Court Limit: You must check the small claims limit of the court where you decide to file the small claim lawsuit. You need to follow the small claims limit to file the small claims, which is based on the state and country. For example, the small claims limit in California is up to $12,000.
- Collect and Organize Evidence: You need to collect all the records and proofs against the defendant. You need to organize your contracts, any communication (text or voice), receipts, photos, videos, invoices, emails and checks etc. you also need to arrange for your witness if you have any. It will give strength to your case. You also need to calculate the claimed amount according to the damage.
- Complete Court Forms: Court forms are required, such as small claims petitions, civil cover sheets, etc. Fill in the required information. Small claims forms generally required to fill with plaintiff name, address, phone and email address, defendant name, address, phone and email address, claimed amount and reason of filing the claim etc. Describe the detailed claim reason with proper professional way.
- Submit the Small Claims Forms: After completing the small claims court papers, you need to submit the small claims papers in the small claims court. While filing the lawsuit in small claims court, you need to pay the filing fee. You can submit the small claims court papers by certified mailing, in person or online. To file a small claim online can save your time and travel.
- Serve the Defendant: After filing the small claims papers in the small claims court for money owed, you need to do small claims service. You need to serve the court papers to the defendant. You need to deliver the defendant with claimed papers using the certified mail address.
- Attend the Hearing: At the end you need to attend the court hearing at the given time. You must reach the court at the given time and represent your case in front of the judge. If you follow the above steps, you will ensure that your case proceeds well.
- Enforce the Judgment: If you do everything perfectly and you win the case. The court will order the defendant to pay the claimed amount. You may need to apply enforcement if the defendant does not pay the claimed amount. You may need to pay an additional fee while enforcing the judgement.
What Happens if the Plaintiff Loses in Small Claims Court?
If you, as a plaintiff, lose the case, the case will be dismissed, and the defendant will not pay you anything. Mostly, the plaintiff asks the court to compensate the defendant’s court costs in case of losing the small claims case.
Case Study:
A small claims lawsuit happened between a landlord Sarah and tenant John. Sarah leased an apartment to John. John started to delay the rent and eventually he stopped to pay the rent. Sarah decided to file a small claim against John to recover the rent of the apartment. She collected all the evidence against John such as lease agreement, payment records, and communication logs and organized them efficiently.
After collecting the proofs, Sarah completed the small claims forms and filed them in the small claims court with all the evidence and paid the required filing fee. The court assigned a hearing date to Sarah.
Sarah also served the court documents to John to tell him about the court hearing. At the hearing date, Sarah reached on a given time and presented her case very efficiently. John failed to provide any solid arguments to defend himself. The judge approved the judgement in favor of Sarah. Sarah collected the judgement using wage garnishment.
Conclusion
Filing a small claims lawsuit in small claims court is an efficient and effective way to resolve the minor disputes. By collecting and organizing the proper evidence and by following the step by step guide of this article, you can increase the chances of the success of your small claims case. Small claims courts are designed to file the small claims in an efficient way. Small claims courts are the part of the civil courts. These courts are designed in such a way that you can resolve your minor amount claims very quickly and in a straightforward way. Small claims courts permit you to file the small claims cases by yourself, and you do not need to hire the small claims court attorney for this purpose. This makes the procedure cost-effective. Most small claims cases are resolved in a single hearing and avoid the complex process.
