[Sardo Numspa]

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1. Yes, a lawyer can't be with you in small claims court. However, you can certainly get a lawyer for his counsel before and after the court date.


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this just isn't true in every jurisdiction in the entire country. its not true in florida and many other states in which i know attorney's in my line of work that the majority of their practises are in small claims court. i'm in small claims court three days a week and people have attorney's representing them all the time.

i see cases like this pretty often and the problem you are going to have is that you are going to have to have an expert testify about the job and what wrong with it and what should have been or what needs to be done. you're not going to be able to just show up and say "judge, he did a [censored] job, i gots me some pictures, i want me money"

an expert can be anyone the court recognizes as an expert so it can really be just anyone who has an amount of years in the business who can testify what is reasonable and customary in the industry. this is basic evidence. affidavits, estimates, scribbles on paper, none of that is evidence. you will need testimony from an independent expert for the court to consider it to be competent credible evidence of your damages,

like i said, i've seen dozens of cases like this and what usually happens is the court will have some sort of mediation process where they try to get the parties to settle. if that doesn't work, you get a trial. the rules of evidence still apply in small claims so you will be bound by them when presenting your case. as the plaintiff, its your burden to prove your case, which even if you get an expert, sounds like it will be his word against your experts word.

then there's collecting on the judgment if you manage to get it. was he operating as a corp, or as a proprietorship? if its a corp, you can only get a judgment against the corp, which if its a some guy with a truck and some tools, good luck getting anything. collecting judgments is a large part of my practice and i can tell you that unless they have something to lose, a judgment in many cases is just a piece of paper.

if you do sue, your best case senario is to have him served which may or may not wake him up. sometimes people are petrified of the court system and it will spur them to action. sometimes people wipe their asses with court papers and don't do anything. if they respond to the suit maybe you can settle it. if they dont, you may get a default judgment, but then again there's collecting. the good news is that small claims cases usually dont cost alot so it may be worth the gamble. if you can get a judgment against him personally, it will show up on his credit and judgments last years. we get payoff requests for judgments in my office every week that are 4 and 5 years old.

edit: just to clarify, this is how small claims works in Florida. But i'm pretty sure the evidence codes with be very similar in most states. Just keep in mind that you have to prove liability and damages. The judge is going to need something to make a ruling on, and in most jurisdictions i am aware of, at least in florida this is true, sworn statements, estimates and the like are not admissible as evidence. you will need testimony to admit the estimates or any other documents you want the judge to consider as evidence.