Ava
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Joined: Jan 30, 2011 12:23:55 GMT -5
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Post by Ava on Jun 1, 2019 7:45:30 GMT -5
Has anyone here ever brought a claim in small claims courts? Today I will get the final issue with the water damage repaired. My contractor is coming over and will fix the heating system that stopped working. I am now basically done with damage remediation and this pm I will have the total monetary cost. There is now some water under the bridge (pun intended ) with the incident itself, and I am no longer emotionally burdened by what happened. I thought once everything was said and done I would want to accept the financial loss and never look back. But my instinct is telling me to put the case in small claims court. It caused a financial setback and a lot of stress and sleepless nights. I want to be compensated for the financial part since the rest can't be helped. I know there is a chance the court may rule against me, and that would be a kick in the teeth. More money and time wasted, for nothing. I was never able to talk to a lawyer about the incident, so I have no idea where I stand. My question is, supposing I go to court and win the case, how enforceable is it? My own personal experience is from someone I know who won a case and was never able to collect. He even went back to court to explain the non-payment and, according to him, there was nothing they could do. Is this true? Because it seems to me the other party would be in contempt of court and that should have some consequences. And if it's true, then what is the point of the whole set up if you are unable to collect after the fact? I am asking because I don't want to waste more time and money if the verdict is unenforceable.
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tskeeter
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Post by tskeeter on Jun 1, 2019 10:28:17 GMT -5
Unless your out of pocket losses are significant, like more than $5K, I doubt that a small claims judgement would be worth pursuing. If your neighbor doesn’t pay any judgement, you might be able to file a lien against the property. However it could be years and years before you could collect on the lien. I found myself self in a similar situation after a car accident. The driver at fault declared bankruptcy in order to avoid the insurance claim and had the insurance company claim dismissed as part of the bankruptcy. But he neglected to name me as a creditor in the bankruptcy. I still had a claim for at least the amount of my deductible, and maybe the entire damages fora totaled car. After a bunch of soul searching, despite how mad I was, I concluded that this guy was so slimy that he would probably hop from job to job and quit jobs to avoid enforcement of a claim. I would probably spend a lot of time and energy chasing him, but probably recover very little, if anything
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Jun 1, 2019 10:42:46 GMT -5
Unless your out of pocket losses are significant, like more than $5K, I doubt that a small claims judgement would be worth pursuing. If your neighbor doesn’t pay any judgement, you might be able to file a lien against the property. However it could be years and years before you could collect on the lien. I found myself self in a similar situation after a car accident. The driver at fault declared bankruptcy in order to avoid the insurance claim and had the insurance company claim dismissed as part of the bankruptcy. But he neglected to name me as a creditor in the bankruptcy. I still had a claim for at least the amount of my deductible, and maybe the entire damages fora totaled car. After a bunch of soul searching, despite how mad I was, I concluded that this guy was so slimy that he would probably hop from job to job and quit jobs to avoid enforcement of a claim. I would probably spend a lot of time and energy chasing him, but probably recover very little, if anything Small claims court usually has a max of $5000 (depending upon state you are in). This is the point of it. I refused to file for the $500 of my deductible when I got hit by an uninsured driver. For me, I simply did not have the time as I was going to school full time and working full time. Had I had the time and energy, I’d have gone after it. Even if Ava does not collect, having a judgement against him could make life difficult for him for an indefinite period of time. At this point, they might pay up to get rid of the nuisance.
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Ava
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Joined: Jan 30, 2011 12:23:55 GMT -5
Posts: 4,141
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Post by Ava on Jun 1, 2019 14:22:22 GMT -5
It has to be under 5k to go to small claims court here.
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CCL
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Joined: Jan 4, 2011 19:34:47 GMT -5
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Post by CCL on Jun 1, 2019 16:04:16 GMT -5
Unless your out of pocket losses are significant, like more than $5K, I doubt that a small claims judgement would be worth pursuing. If your neighbor doesn’t pay any judgement, you might be able to file a lien against the property. However it could be years and years before you could collect on the lien. I found myself self in a similar situation after a car accident. The driver at fault declared bankruptcy in order to avoid the insurance claim and had the insurance company claim dismissed as part of the bankruptcy. But he neglected to name me as a creditor in the bankruptcy. I still had a claim for at least the amount of my deductible, and maybe the entire damages fora totaled car. After a bunch of soul searching, despite how mad I was, I concluded that this guy was so slimy that he would probably hop from job to job and quit jobs to avoid enforcement of a claim. I would probably spend a lot of time and energy chasing him, but probably recover very little, if anything Small claims court usually has a max of $5000 (depending upon state you are in). This is the point of it. I refused to file for the $500 of my deductible when I got hit by an uninsured driver. For me, I simply did not have the time as I was going to school full time and working full time. Had I had the time and energy, I’d have gone after it. Even if Ava does not collect, having a judgement against him could make life difficult for him for an indefinite period of time. At this point, they might pay up to get rid of the nuisance. When our car was hit by an uninsured motorist our insurance company waived the deductible for us. Then they went after the other guy. I thought they all did this.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Jun 1, 2019 17:23:37 GMT -5
Small claims court usually has a max of $5000 (depending upon state you are in). This is the point of it. I refused to file for the $500 of my deductible when I got hit by an uninsured driver. For me, I simply did not have the time as I was going to school full time and working full time. Had I had the time and energy, I’d have gone after it. Even if Ava does not collect, having a judgement against him could make life difficult for him for an indefinite period of time. At this point, they might pay up to get rid of the nuisance. When our car was hit by an uninsured motorist our insurance company waived the deductible for us. Then they went after the other guy. I thought they all did this. Mine did not. I was told by them this was an option to get my money back. The other driver was not insured, her insurance had lapsed a few days before she hit me.
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mroped
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Post by mroped on Jun 1, 2019 17:51:28 GMT -5
In Pa I believe the limit for Small Claims Court to be at $10k but I might be wrong. I had one against another contractor for bad checks etc but didn’t expect any recovery. From what I was told, generally the judges rule for the homeowner so against the contractor in a case of dispute between a homeowner and a contractor for bad/faulty work etc. Other than that is anyone’s guess!
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justme
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Joined: Feb 10, 2012 13:12:47 GMT -5
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Post by justme on Jun 1, 2019 17:55:12 GMT -5
Small claims court usually has a max of $5000 (depending upon state you are in). This is the point of it. I refused to file for the $500 of my deductible when I got hit by an uninsured driver. For me, I simply did not have the time as I was going to school full time and working full time. Had I had the time and energy, I’d have gone after it. Even if Ava does not collect, having a judgement against him could make life difficult for him for an indefinite period of time. At this point, they might pay up to get rid of the nuisance. When our car was hit by an uninsured motorist our insurance company waived the deductible for us. Then they went after the other guy. I thought they all did this. Nope. My parents had to pay it, but the kid got arrested (forget whether it was no insurance or no driver's license) and the prosecutor put paying them back the deductible as part of his deal.
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alabamagal
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Post by alabamagal on Jun 1, 2019 18:08:09 GMT -5
So I have experience being sued in small claims court when we owned a print shop. It was for maybe $1k? And it was her fault imho. Our employee did exactly what the customer told her to do, which resulted in damaging her cookbooks ( essentially drilled a hole where the recipe told you how much to add). Since we only did the holes to the customers specs, I felt we had no liability.
So go to small claims court. First, the judge tells us to try to settle out of court. No go. So then he listens to both sides ( I thought my argument was pretty good!). And when I say listen, maybe that is not a good description, both sides presented their side. Then he ruled for 50%.
I think that may be standard answer 50%.
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Bonny
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Post by Bonny on Jun 1, 2019 18:23:07 GMT -5
Has anyone here ever brought a claim in small claims courts? Today I will get the final issue with the water damage repaired. My contractor is coming over and will fix the heating system that stopped working. I am now basically done with damage remediation and this pm I will have the total monetary cost. There is now some water under the bridge (pun intended ) with the incident itself, and I am no longer emotionally burdened by what happened. I thought once everything was said and done I would want to accept the financial loss and never look back. But my instinct is telling me to put the case in small claims court. It caused a financial setback and a lot of stress and sleepless nights. I want to be compensated for the financial part since the rest can't be helped. I know there is a chance the court may rule against me, and that would be a kick in the teeth. More money and time wasted, for nothing. I was never able to talk to a lawyer about the incident, so I have no idea where I stand. My question is, supposing I go to court and win the case, how enforceable is it? My own personal experience is from someone I know who won a case and was never able to collect. He even went back to court to explain the non-payment and, according to him, there was nothing they could do. Is this true? Because it seems to me the other party would be in contempt of court and that should have some consequences. And if it's true, then what is the point of the whole set up if you are unable to collect after the fact? I am asking because I don't want to waste more time and money if the verdict is unenforceable. How much is your claim?
I got sued in small claims court about 3 years ago for $1,000, the cost of my downstair's unit deductible. I fought it because I thought I was correct. My neighbor had filed a false claim against my insurance the year before and I was tired of her games.
I lost. The judge interpreted the condo rules differently than how my insurance company and I interpreted them. My insurance company paid under the liability portion of my policy.
I had 30 days to pay the judgment or it would have gone to lien. This is San Diego County. Going to lien would have affected my credit rating. Most lenders won't lend to someone until they pay their liens because the lien could attach to your property. Since the guy does own property I'll bet he will pay if you win. Perhaps not quickly but eventually.
Do read the rules. In San Diego the court insists that you make a demand for payment before you file. They made a demand via e-mail. We also were asked to go to mediation which we did but it didn't work out. Basically it cost me a full day to fight it (plus airfare).
I will add that the following year the same people were getting ready to make me pay for another one of their problems. The HOA messed up and did a repair to my unit without giving me notice. Although I made good money on the unit and was sad to give up the location, I breathed a real sigh of relief getting away from the crazy neighbor.
My advice is to figure out whether it's worth your time to spend a full day with the court. Good luck with whatever decision you make.
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Ava
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Post by Ava on Jun 1, 2019 19:01:04 GMT -5
Well, my contractor didn't finish with the fan ceiling today. He'll come back tomorrow to finish.
He said he'll have to come at another time to do the heat system. So I don't have a total estimate. So far it's $800.
My manager is very supportive of me in general and really sorry this happened to me. I'm 100 percent he'll give me a day off with pay to go to court, so that won't be a problem. I still don't want to spend a day there, but I feel I need to stand up for myself and make my case. If I win, and the consequence for the other party is an adverse credit report, I see him paying.
Tomorrow I am going to set a date in stone with my contractor to come for the heat system within 2 or 3 weeks top. I don't want to pass the statute of limitation.
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justme
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Post by justme on Jun 1, 2019 20:00:37 GMT -5
From my understanding it varies greatly what the outcome of winning is. It seems some places have things in place to ensure payment while others don't. So it relies on your jurisdiction on whether winning actually means anything or if it's just the first of many steps you'll have to take.
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