Small Claims Court Jurisdiction and Venue

How can your argue successfully that your case belongs in Small Claims?

and....

Can your bring a case before the court in your county if the debt was incurred in a different county, but then turned over to a CA and the violations were committed while I am living in my county?

and...

Because these are Federal Laws..how can they be heard in a small claims court...I had the judge ask me that..I gave him the jursidiction reference about "Competence of any state court". But he wanted more. Mind you this wasn't in the hearing. He asked me to discuss my case with him before I filed any paperwork.

Any help is welcomed.

I moved your questions, once we have the answers, I'll post those answers in the reference section. There are several threads on the subject, (do a search) I really don't have an answer.

You can't MAKE a judge not dismiss, if a judge doesn't want these cases in his court, he'll dismiss.

Do have an alternative solution though. A judge won't dismiss unless the defendant asks. There's a chance the defendant will settle rather than pay your legal fees to the attorney who will file the federal suit for you - if you have a decent case. It doesn't always work, but it's worth a try.

Also, I don't understand why you're discussing the case with the judge before the filing, I take it you know each other?

Why do you have ARGUE anything in small claims?

Where are you?

Thanks for replying...

We aren't buddies, but I know him and he knows me. This is such a small town everyone knows everyone.

Maybe argue wasn't a good word to use. He just asked me why I was suing and I gave him the spill. I was trying to get a temp. waiver for the court fee becuase I didn't have the 100 plus dollars to pay right then and there. So i guess that's probably why I had to go in detail with him.

I'm in the state of Alabama.

A hundred bucks!!!! For another 50 you can file a federal suit and you won't have to argue :)

I'd say if he doesn't want that case in his court, go the federal route. You generally can settle for a much higher amount and you're more likely to get results.

I've been searching for an attoney, but haven't been able to find one. I'm really thinking about going to federal court, but I don't want to get ripped a new one..lol.

This CA is being bull headed...this is a paid 45 dollar account. Silly huh.

Have you looked at Whypers case?

http://www.proselitigant.net/vs-ross.html

I much prefer attorneys taking the case on contingency, but it's tough to find a good attorney when you don't have a bunch of violations and especially damages. A lot of consumer attorneys are just cream skimming.

Filing a federal suit without an attorney is not for everybody, but it might still be easier than finding an attorney or having to argue with the judge over venue and jurisdiction.

There are many things to consider, including how inconvenient it is for the collector to get to YOUR town's small claims court, whether they can hire an attorney, move the case out of small claims, appeal if they don't show up, appeal if they lose, whether YOU can appeal, etc.

I checked out your pro se website a couple hours ago and got some great info from one case Seidman v. LJ Ross.

But Seidman's case looks like my case against this CA, minus the failing to notify me though. Everything else is about the same, but I have one more violation then her. I have the CA pulling my CR without permissible reason.

I must say that the pro se site is amazing. they layout is first rate. I've been trying to get into PHP. I have the books, just have to sit down and hit 'em hard.

I would recomend checking Alabama State Laws as well. You could file the small claims route that way and the judge would not ask you any Federal questions. Most States have Laws that mirror the FCRA and FDCPA.

One word of caution is that the FCRA states specifically that is supercedes State Laws of similar nature...BUT it goes on to say that IF the State Law was enacted before the 1997 revision of the FCRA, then the State Law is still valid and enforceable...additionaly the FCRA says that the State Law is still enforeceable IF it is more protective of the consumer than is the FCRA...in my pro-se case, during the mediation phase, the CRA lawyer tried to argue that my claim was barred because Federal Law superceded State Law. I initially argued that was not true, that States rights always overide Federal Law...he argued that the FCRA specifically stated it was superceding and stated the article number in the code. I asked the judge for 5 minutes to review the article in the law. When I read it, I replied that the FCRA does indeed supercede State Law in many situations, but in this particular case, State Law is more protective by virtue of the fact that State Law provides for higher statutory damages and is therefore more protective and the FCRA states that State Laws which are more protective are not superceded by the FCRA.

The judge agreed and my State FCRA claim went forward. The company settled shortly thereafter.

9/3/03 Dismissed FCRA & FDCPA complaints for Lack of subject matter jurisdiction

Small Claims Magistrate

Amy Searcy McDonough

MCDONOUGH, AMY 513.945.3683 amcdonou@cms.hamilton–co.org

Dismissed FCRA & FDCPA complaints for Lack of subject matter jurisdiction (Defendents also never appeared)

Tell me more - they didn't show up, so did they file a motion?

Where was it?

I don't think the defendants had to appear. A suit arising under a federal claim can't be heard in a small claims court. A judge can review jurisdiction on her own initiative without other parties raising the issue.

(That is this humble law student's understanding, at least.)

"A suit arising under a federal claim can't be heard in a small claims court."

That is NOT true.

I apologize---I was too quick to comment! As I mentioned, I'm still a student....

I did further research and consulted a professor. Federal claims can be brought in state courts. Whether or not they can be brought in a small claims court in a given state depends on the subject matter jurisdiction that state grants its small claims court.

So it's really up to the state of Alabama on this.

Yes, there are the courts guidelines, and then there's how the judge feels.

I had a client file about 10 small claims suits against mostly collectors, of course all in his county. Different judges - different rulings. Small claims judges usually don't know about the law and often don't care.

In my client's case, several cases were settled out of court, several went to the hearing in HIS court, one collector got the case moved into HIS county.

That's why I always say that people can file small claims actions as a wakeup call, a last chance to settle. If it's not settled before the hearing date, they should DISMISS and refile in federal court.

Small claims is like going to the casino.

That doesn't seem like a bad strategy to me. It does get the creditors to take you seriously when they receive a summons, after all, and filing in small claims court is cheaper than other courts.

But if someone is really determined to take the fight all the way to the end, I wonder if it's not better to file in a federal district court or in a state court of general jurisdiction to begin with. There's less worry about the state of limitations to bring suit lapsing, for one thing, and it saves a little bit on court costs if you're going to wind up in another venue eventually.

Though it's never cheap going to court in the first place, really.

Well, it all depends on how many defendants you have and what your small claims rules are.

In AZ, I can only name ONE defendant, but it's cheap, only $16.

In Cal, it's pretty cheap too, and apparently you can name several defendants and even file online! That's pretty cool.

Most people just don't know how to file a federal complaint, and it's nice to be able to practice in small claims a bit, like I did.

California's government pages in general are pretty cool. :)

Did the judges ever give you grief over your representing yourself rather than having a lawyer, by the way? I know it's not uncommon to do so in small claims---in fact, some states don't even allow lawyers in small claims courts---but what about other venues?