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Working Title: A Guide To Small Claims Court

-- By MichaelDuignan - 24 Feb 2010

The naive view: Using the court to right a wrong

"As a litigant, I should dread a lawsuit beyond almost anything short of sickness and death." - J. Learned Hand

I have been party to a civil lawsuit only one time. Though the stakes were about as low as they could go, and the venue about as prosaic as one can find on the isle of Manhattan, the experience has colored an impression that judicial outcomes have as much to do with the parties to the suit as they do with the facts of the case or the law as applied to them.

Take the plunge, and sink or swim

Six years ago, I moved to New York to pursue my adult life after college. With haste, I found a short-term, informal sublease in Brooklyn until I could afford a long-term apartment lease in Manhattan. After two months, I secured a lease, and gave the sublessor 30-days notice of my departure. At the time, she had in her possession my security deposit equal to two months' rent. When moving day came, though I had given her no justifiable excuse to retain my deposit, she explained that she would only be able to reimburse half the deposit. She assured me that the other half would come soon. As we had become friends during my stay there, I trusted her to repay me and moved on.

Almost a year later, I was still asking her for that money. She had ducked and dodged my requests with alarming efficiency. I had managed to corner her once, being generous enough to place her on a monthly payment plan, but even that she soon found a way to skirt. I almost let her get away with it too; as both my parents are small-business owners, I empathized with her status as an entreprenuer of humble means. However, once I discovered other sublessees after me had come and gone from her flat and received their security deposits in full, empathy turned to antipathy. I was going to recover the money not because I needed it, but because principle demanded that I do so.

The cost vs. benefit of going to trial

Filing with the court

Preparing for a showdown

Every case has a turning point

Taking a step back: Using the court as a means to an end

Did principle really determine the outcome of the case?

The potential for abuse and a responsibility to correct or account for it

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