Small Claims Court Los Angeles.

What is Small Claims Court in Los Angeles County?

Small Claims Court is a division of the Los Angeles Superior Court In Los Angeles County where individuals and entities can file a lawsuit claims to recover money or property. Los Angeles small claims courts are operational to address many disputes which involve a relatively small amount of money. Small Claims Court in Los Angeles County of California handles different types of small disputes including civil and property damages in an easy and smooth way without hiring an attorney. These small claims are designed in such a way that a lay man having no legal experience can also proceed the small claim case by himself by paying small amount of money that is the filing fee of the court.

What will you know:

• Small claim court locations in the county of Los Angeles.
• Statute of Limitations on small claim in Los Angeles.
• What is the maximum amount for small claims court in California?
• How much does small claims court cost?
• What Types of Cases Heard in Los Angeles small claim court?
• How to file small claim lawsuit in small claim court Los Angeles County

What is statute of limitation in Los Angeles Small Claims Court?

In Los Angeles small claims court he statute of limitations for filing a small claims lawsuit case depends what type of case you are filing. For example:

1. For the Personal injury Claim: You can file a lawsuit in 2 years from the date of the incident occur.
2. For the Property damage:You must file a lawsuit within 3 years from the date the damage occurred.
3. For the Oral contracts:You can file a small claim lawsuit within 2 years from the date the contract was breached.
4. Written contracts:
5. Pretrial Statement:You have 4 years to sue someone from the date the contract was breached.
6. Fraud:You have 3 years of filing a lawsuit from when you discovered the fraud.

What is the maximum amount for small claims court in Los Angeles?

The maximum amount for filing a lawsuit in the small claim court Los Angeles is up to $12,500 and for businesses limit is up to $6,250. An individual can file as many lawsuits not exceeding the monetary limit of $2,500 per year.

• There is no Jury required, judge makes the decisions of small claims in Los Angeles small claims courts.

How much does small claims court cost Los Angeles?

In Los Angeles County small claims court, the filing fee of a small claims’ lawsuit depends on the amount you are suing for:

• Claims up to $1,500:$30
• Claims between $1,500 and $5,000:$50
• Claims between $5,000 and $10,000:$75

If you file lawsuits more than 12 in a year, each additional lawsuit will cost $100. If you want to serve the defendant, you may be charged additional fees for serving and collecting a judgment if you win. If you cannot afford the legal expense, you can request a fee waiver from the court.

Step-by-Step Guide to Small Claim Lawsuit in Los Angeles Court:

Small claim lawsuit in Los Angeles California courts is about the money or thing you are suing against the defendant. Los Angeles County small claims courts offer very easy, smooth and cheap process to file a lawsuit. The small claim in Los Angeles County case should be filed in the right location, usually where the defendant lives or where the dispute occurs. You must be careful to proceed with every step and all the process goes smooth.

Eligibility Criteria:

You can file a small claims lawsuit in Los Angeles California Small Claims court, you must be eligible to fulfil the following:

• You must be 18 or older.
• The person or business you are suing lives in  Los Angeles California.
• You can file cases involving small amounts of money in Los Angeles small claims court.
• The maximum amount an individual can file is $12,500.
• Business entities and Corporations can file for $6,250 and less.
• You can file as many small claims cases as you wish, with a maximum claim limit of $2,500 per year.
• Statute of limitations of the small claims must be followed.
• Make sure that your case falls in small claims category. For example: Your case will be considered as small claim case If some has taken your goods and services and not paid for it, if someone has damaged your property, breach of contract or refund disputes etc.

Identify the Correct Defendant:

When you are filing a lawsuit in the small claim court, it is very important to identify the defendant; this means you must identify their real name or the business name. If you are suing any business, you must identify its correct address. You also need to identify the business is owned by one person or a group. You must identify the correct facts of the business. You can search about the business details using the California Secretary of State's business search.

Collect Necessary Documentation and Evidence:

You must gather all the required documents and the proofs such as the invoices of the unpaid amounts, property damages pictures of high quality, contracts, witness statements, emails, text messages or letters that shows communication between you and defendant. Your documents and evidence must be organized and labeled to be able to represent in the court.

Demand Letter:

First of all, you need to send demand letter for payment related to your dispute to the party being sued. In the demand letter you will request to the defendant to settle the dispute out of the court. If the defendant does not reply to the demand letter, then take the next step to file a small claim lawsuit.

Complete the Forms:

In Los Angeles small claim court, there are different types of small claims forms that one can fill out depending upon the type of claim. You need to fill out the complete for putting you information and defendant’s information. In case of suing a business or an individual, SC-100 information sheet and SC-130 form will be used. In order to serve small claim papers to the other party, SC-104 form needs to be fill out. For requesting the court to postpone the trial date SC-150 form will be used.

File the court Papers in Los Angeles:

Fill out the small claim’s forms. You will need to file the small claims form in the county where defendant resides, or the dispute occurred. Select the small claims court near the defendant location.

Pay the Filing Fee:

The amount of claim determines the court fee for filing a small claim case in the state of California. Small claims fee also varies by county.

• Filling fee is $30 for the small claims up to the amount of $1500.
• Filling fee is $50 for the small claims ranging from $1,500 to $5,000.
• Filing fee is $75 for the small claims up to the amount of $5000 but less than or equal to $12,500

Serve the Defendant:

After filing the small claim lawsuit documents in the small claim court Los Angeless, the court will provide you with trial date or summons. You must serve these trial date documents to the defendant or persons so that they must come to know that a case has been filed against them. You can serve this trial date documents to the defendant by the local sheriff, a process server or by third party. You must serve the defendant 15 days before the court date.

Proof of Service:

Next you will file the proof of service document with the court as a proof to show that defendant has been served with the small claim complaint form/Summon.

Collect Evidence:

You need to collect all the evidence to support your claim and prepare yourself for the trial hearing.

Attend Hearing:

You must attend the scheduled trial hearing. After filing the small claim documents and serving the trial date documents to the defendant, you need to prepare yourself for the court hearing. You must know the rules to attend the court hearing.

You need to collect and organize all important documents like invoices, contracts, and receipts as evidence to support your claim before the judge on your trial day. Prepare yourself to explain the reason of the small claim that why you are suing to the defendant to your judge. You must collect receipts of all the costs you spent while filing the small claims lawsuit to request and reimbursed for these costs. It is important to make copies of each filing documents and supporting evidence. You must be there in the court on time on the hearing day. Find out your case schedule in the displayed list.

Your case will be called as per the schedule. Once the hearing starts, the judge will ask to explain the reason of filing the dispute. The hearing will take about approximately 15 minutes in which both parties will represent their side of story.

The judge will announce the decision right away, you will receive the judgement by mail within a few weeks to two months. If you showed up on the hearing, you need to prove to the judge why you should win. In case if only the defendant shows up the judge will dismiss the case by issuing a proper notice.

Small Claims Court Advisors in Los Angeles

If you have any concern about your small claims case or your case is complicated, you can take help from Small Claims Advisors who are available in Los Angeles small claim court. They can provide you legal help and will provide you all the required information. They only can help you out throughout the process, but they are not your representatives in small claims courts.

What Happens After the Judgment?

After filing the court papers in small claims court in Los Angeles city you will get the judgement. If all the things go smooth, you will win the case and you will get the order of judgement that describes that the defendant will pay you the damage. If the defendant does not pay you after the judgement, you will need to prepare some additional forms to enforce the defendant to pay you by law.

If you win the small claim lawsuit, the court will order the defendant to pay you the due amount. After this order, you will be the responsible to collect the claimed amount from the defendant by Wage garnishment, Bank levy or Property liens. If you lose the case, you will not be able to collect any money from the defendant.

There is also an option of settlement that sometimes occurs after filing the court papers in small claims courts. Sometimes parties make a settlement agreement between them before the court’s decision. If this happened, there is no need for the court judgment and the case resoled without any court order.

You must notify to the court about the situation, the court will ask you to submit a dismissal form. After filing a Request for Dismissal (Form CIV-110) lform your case will be closed.