judith_s | Small Claims Court, the good, the bad, and the ugly

So last Tuesday I sat as Judge Pro Tem in the Los Gatos evening court, for small claims. It was educational. Most of the people there had claims under $300. Almost all of them were minorities of various sorts (of the 10 parties, 3 had translators). About 50% were cases between former friends and lovers. For many of them, the $300 meant real money.

My immediate reaction to both the cases I heard was "you are both being stupid, neither of you should get anything." One of the advantages of small claims court is that, since there are no attorneys, the judge gets to ask all the questions. So I spent most of my time trying to elicit facts from crying women. Not exactly a heartening experience. Especially when coupled with the warning given by the deputy sheriff in his introduction to the parties (which I sat in on). Apparently about 6% of judgements are paid directly, about 45% are paid once the person comes back, and gets a garnishment order, or otherwise forces the court system to get involved. And almost 50% never get paid.

I will probably do this again. But I definitely saw a different side of the valley in court.

On the other hand, I ran into a friend from law school, whom I had not seen in years. He was representing a company being sued. Luckily he settled the case in the "negotiation phase" before coming in.