Small Claims Court

On March 1, 2005, I went to the 3rd District Matheson Court House in the down town area and sat in on a few small claims court cases. I wanted to do this because I had never been to an actual court proceeding and I have been interested in seeing one live instead of on television. I am going to write about the three different cases that I sat in on, what the conflict was, what the outcome was and what I learned from each one.

CASE #1

The Plaintiff's name in this first case was Watt. His case was that he subleased a vehicle to Kapone and Kapone had breached their contract by not making payments for vehicle which ultimately affects watts credit. Watt also filed crimal charges against Kapone for harassment and personal check theft which took place in Las Vegas, Nevada. Watt placed a restraining order on Kapone. Watt wanted to be paid for the car payments that were delinquent. The Defendant's name was Kapone and he was not present but submitted a letter to the judge. Although there was no signed contract in the letter, Kapone did in fact state they did have a written contract. The judge ruled in favor of Watt for the amount of $764.56.

You can never be too careful when lending money to anyone even if it is a friend. In this case it did not turn out so well for Watt. He chose to go out on a limb and help kapone, wheter he was a friend or not, I don't know but he was not trustworthy and it ended up costing Watt time and money and possibly a lower credit score.

CASE #2

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The plaintiff's name in this case was Shivers. He claimed that they had allowed their daughters friend to move into their house after she had been kicked out of hers. She was eighteen and had no where to stay so they let her move in for 300.00 a month. She was there for six months and never paid any rent. Shivers wants six months of rent and court costs. The Defendant's name was Bradley and was not present but had friend, the Shivers daughter testify that the agreement had been made. The judge ruled in favor of Shivers for the amount of $2,100.00.

The Shiver's wanted to not only help their daughter but her friend too. In this situation they agreed to let her live there even though they charged. ( I fell this is odd, due to the fact that it was there daughters friend and they were still going to charge