More Mistakes Artists and Small Businesses Make at Small Claims Court

Even though small claims court handles small claims pressing your claim can be a large challenge. Here are a few mistakes artists and small businesses make which an experienced attorney like Rich and can help you avoid.

Putting too much trust in certified mailing service executed by the Court

Just because a plaintiff paid the Court to serve the Defendant doesn’t mean they were actually served properly. Defendants (including businesses) often refuse to sign for certified mail. If this happens, service is incomplete and a plaintiff must serve them again. It is important to check with the Court to see if they actually received the signature card for mailing the complaint via certified mail. If they didn’t, they must be served again.

Not serving the Defendant within the required time frame

Each jurisdiction has certain limited time period for when a defendant can be served. It is possible to only find out that a first attempt at service was a failure after the time period to serve the defendant has elapsed. In DC small claims court, a defendant needs to be served within 60 days from when a complaint has been filed. What should a plaintiff do if the time period to serve the defendant has elapsed? The plaintiff needs to request an alias summons which will reset the time period to serve the defendant.

Not being able to determine if the defendant is in the military

If a plaintiff is awarded a default judgment, they are required to file a service member affidavit. The service member affidavit is a sworn statement which generally explains either whether or not the defendant is active duty military and how the plaintiff knows this. The reason why these are required is because of the Service Members Civil Relief Act which is intended to prevent default judgments from being taken against active duty military members.

The Department of War runs a website which allows peoples military status to be checked if a plaintiff has their last name, social security number or birthday. If a plaintiff has neither of those things, there are third party services which can lookup someone’s military status with less information but will charge a fee. A plaintiff can also swear to a defendant’s military status based on their own personal knowledge. If plaintiff has spoken to the defendant (or anyone with knowledge) personally about what their job is, that could be sufficient.