Most of the cases we handle are in Superior Court, since it’s usually not cost-effective to file a lawsuit or hire an attorney to represent you if less than $10,000 is at stake. Now that the Superior Court division will only hear cases with more than $25,000 in controversy, we may see more clients with claims in the $10,000 - $25,000 range who are required to proceed in District Court. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; sometimes it can be advantageous to assert civil claims in District Court since you’re more likely to have the same judge for the whole case or at least all of the judges will be from your own judicial district rather than from out of town. We rarely advise clients to proceed in Small Claims Court since the informal approach taken by the magistrate so often leads parties to appeal to the district court. I have rarely heard anybody say they were satisfied with the outcome in small claims court or that they were glad they started there instead of in District Court.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Jul 2013 19:01:09 +0000
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