I meant having better access to Federal courts/enforcement mechanisms enforce judgment actions across state lines. I recalled the minimum threshold for that was ~$5000 and up.
Anything below that goes to Small Claims Court which means the limits of authorities willing to help if the defendant crosses state lines is nil. Especially considering costs of enforcement if the defendant who is found to be liable for the small claim court judgment ends up crossing state lines. In many cases, the cost/aggravation involved in trying to enforce small claims judgement ends up being much more than the initial claim.
It’s no different than civil court from my understanding…51% proof…not proven beyond all reasonable doubt as a criminal case.
Basically your account of the incident merely has to be considered more credible and more likely to have happened than the other party in the eyes of the judge/small claims adjudicator or jury if applicable(NOT IN A SMALL CLAIMS CASE)
Depending on the state/locality, your small claims adjudicator may not necessarily be an official judge…or even caring about enforcing/being knowledgeable about all the laws pertaining to small claims court or a given case.
The small claims adjudicator in my friend’s case wasn’t a judge and disregarded/was oblivious to the fact he not only wasn’t obligated, but shouldn’t have given the completely unprepared defendant a second chance to prepare his case.
Especially considering he received certified notice far in advanced of the court date and as such, was expected under state/local laws to come to small claims court prepared.
In the course of the case, that adjudicator also exhibited some ignorance of the laws and even yelled at my friend* when this was pointed out…only for the adjudicator to later apologize and concede my friend was correct.
While not a lawyer, my friend was a law school dropout who attended for a bit more than a year before concluding he the legal profession wasn't for him.
You are mixing up court systems, cobrat, and jurisdiction. If you get a judgment in a state system, you can record it in another state system (ohio to Maryland) but you cannot record it in the federal system because there is no federal system for the enforcement of civil judgments. NO system is ever going to help you collect. Ohio doesn’t care if you are owed money and have to chase it to Maryland. You then have to file the judgment in Maryland and follow Maryland collection laws to get paid.
Every state sets its own limits for what actions are brought in what court. Most small claims courts are a subdivision of the lowest level (county court in many states). Most small claims courts are for person v person, no lawyers, no corporations, money judgments only (no return of property, no orders to fix something). Party A says ‘He damaged my driveway and I want $500.’ For the OP in this case, in my state she could bring the action for $1000 in small claims, but the cleaning service could not ‘appear’ unless it was individually owned. “Sue” can appear for Sue’s Cleaners, but not for Sue’s Cleaners, Inc., or Sue’s Cleaners, LLC. No corporation, no partnership, no manager of an LLC could represent the company, so upon answering the summons, the cleaning company would move the matter to county court. OP could still represent herself, but she’d be at a full trial with the full set of rules to follow. A landlord can sue a tenant, but a landlord corporation can’t send a property manager to sue the tenant.
That is not what it means. You have to give notice in the manner stated in the statute. It might be okay to send a notice by return receipt USPS, and if the receipt comes back ‘refused’ you are deemed to have served the summons, but notice by mail has to be allow. A process server might be required. More $$.
I think you are only going to win if you show the cleaning service stated it was bonded and responsible for any theft or damage. It doesn’t have to be a formal contract, but an ad, a receipt, some statement of what the company promised customers. A judge could just believe you, but most require a little bit more. I used to conduct small claims hearings, and most of it is just believing the person with the best story, backed by receipts, agreements, photos. A lot is common sense. I used to have landlords asking for $80 for cleaning the drip pans on stoves; you can just buy a set of new ones for about $15. Common sense.
@twoinanddone What if the status of the company changed on the exact day the event happened? I don’t know what the company’s structure was before, but there is a filing in the secretary of state’s office that shows that on Jan. 3, the same day of my cleaning, the company was incorporated. On Jan. 4, the “fictitious name” of my cleaning company was filed. How bizarre is that!
Their website states: “We are fully insured for your peace of mind. We carry both liability insurance and workers comp. insurance. All employees have had background checks and are bonded.”
Refusal could also mean they were legally served personally, but refused to take possession. In the case I outlined earlier, I mentioned that she was served by substituted service the first time. The second time, the process server tried to hand it to her but she refused to take it, so he dropped it at her feet. This is legal service in my state when someone refuses service.