Loading…
25
I finally stopped telling people to just 'get a lawyer' for small claims, and here is why
Every time someone posts about a $2,300 deposit dispute or a contractor who took off with $4,500, the top reply is always 'lawyer up.' I used to say it too, until I sat in a Cleveland courtroom last March watching a woman represent herself against a property management company and she actually won. Hiring an attorney for anything under about $10,000 usually makes no sense, because you will pay $250 to $400 an hour and the case can eat 15 to 20 hours before you even see a judge. Small claims courts were built for regular people, the filing fee in most counties is under $100, and the rules of evidence are relaxed enough that a folder of texts and a printed bank statement can carry the day. The real problem is that people show up unprepared, not that they showed up alone. I have watched maybe a dozen of these hearings now and the folks who lose are the ones who ramble about how unfair it all is instead of just showing the contract, the payment, and the missed deadline. So my question for the attorneys here is whether you actually agree, or am I giving people bad advice by telling them to skip counsel on smaller dollar cases?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
aaron8961d ago
Is $2,300 really worth a whole post about this?
5