How exactly would this case play out in a small claims court?

Factual Questions
1

Hey all,
So I’m working on a book that starts with a scene in small claims court in St. Paul (MN). I have actually been there, but I honestly don’t remember everything about how it tends to work. So some advice would be greatly appreciated on exactly how to handle the details.

The main character is trying to get copies of medical records back from her mother. Mom has refused to provide them, their lawyers emailed back and forth, etc. The hospital lost a lot of paper medical records in a fire, and these came from just before all the records were stored electronically, so there is no other way to get them. The MC and her mother finally end up in small claims court in front of a judge. Basically, the mother and stepfather act completely crazy with lots of yelling and screaming and general weirdness. She does end up getting the records, but I’m not exactly sure what all the small intermediate steps would have been. How would the case have been introduced? When the judge ruled that she should get the papers, did they go back to the judge’s chambers, or a back room, or… ? How would the judge have behaved while watching this insanity play out in front of him? And pretty much anything else that people want to contribute… Thanks for any and all opinions! :slight_smile:

2

I can’t speak for the rest of the questions but I think this part, since it opens the book is going to set the tone and you can sort of decide how you want it to play out. Do you want the the judge to be rolling their eyes like Judge Judy or do you want them to be attempting to shut it down and threatening to hold people in contempt of court every time they make a peep? Maybe watch a couple of shows (Jude Judy, Night Court, Law and Order etc) and see what you like.

3

Small claims courts hear claims for money damages (those medical records were worth $1,000.00 so I want money!). This is a claim for equitable relief (I want you to turn over the papers, not pay me their monetary value), which are generally heard in circuit courts or their equivalents. In Minnesota, my understanding is that a small claims court could make a factual finding about who owns the documents, but not order a party to turn them over. IAAL, but IANAL a Minnesota lawyer.

4

Honestly, I’m not exactly sure which it was… Okay, I might as well say it: this part of the story actually happened. :wink: I just don’t remember much about it… that whole episode is kind of a blur. I do remember that the judge ruled that they had to either turn over the papers or pay $5,000, if that helps with trying to recreate exactly what happened. It also was actually held in the Landmark Center in St. Paul. It was the federal courthouse for the whole upper midwest way back in the day, but by the time I was there (mid 1990’s I think,) it doesn’t seem like they were doing federal cases anymore… this one definitely wasn’t. They were for sure having some kind of court cases there, though, even though it was and is mostly used for big events, arts organizations, nonprofits, etc. As for the judge’s attitude, I think he was having a hard time believing what he was seeing, but the details are so fuzzy.

5

First, it won’t be an actual Judge. It will be a ‘referee’ (an experienced, often retired lawyer) in charge of the courtroom.

Small Claims is run much more informally than other courts, but they are not likely to put up with a lot of what you see on Judge Judy & similar. In particular, litigants are required to take their turn, and yelling out & interrupting the other are not allowed. Yelling & screaming are not taken as seriously as in regular court, but the referee will say something like “I’m right here. I can hear you fine without the yelling. Keep your voice down.”.

Sometimes, a referee will respond to emotional ‘craziness’ by recessing the case for a half hour to give them time to cool off, and proceed with other cases in the meantime. Usually with a threat that if they can’t behave properly, he will end the testimony & decide the case based on the written responses.

You didn’t mention the age of the petitioner. Was she a minor child in her mother’s custody at the time of these medical treatments? And is she now of legal age? That may be an important issue.

If the medical records are in court, the referee is likely to ask that they be given to him to examine. And then he is likely to give them to his clerk, with a note asking the clerk to make a copy of them all. When that’s done, his decision would be to return the originals to the mother, and give the copy to the daughter. As the patient, she has a right to those records about her. While she was a minor, her parents had control of those records, but if she is now an adult, she has a right to them.

Note that in real Small Claims Court, the rulings are not delivered in person at the end of the hearing. They are given as a written judgement, mailed out to each side, usually in a week or two. This is to prevent drama in the courtroom, where one side tries to argue with the referee while the other celebrates. Of course, for your story, removing the drama of the decision is probably not what you want.

6

I think we’re STARTING to figure out what actually happened here… :slight_smile:

The petitioner was an adult by the time that all of this went down; she was 18 when the terrible car accident and hospital records happened. The records weren’t there in the courtroom… the boxes with the medical records in them also had the petitioner’s childhood writings in them, and her grandmother said that she would testify to those being hers if it actually came down to that. The ruling definitely was delivered at the end of the hearing though (“the papers or $5000, that’s it, no other options.”) Would that decision have maybe been actually handed down in a back room of some kind? I can pretty much guarantee that it wasn’t mailed out a week later, because the boxes of papers showed up in the lawyer’s office just a couple of days later.

7

ETA: Just missed the five minute window: I THINK I remember this… The judge WAS an actual retired judge… for some reason, he spent some time refereeing small claims court cases.

8

That sounds more like a mediation than a trial.

9

I don’t know if it possibly could have been though… Because an attempt at mediation happened a few months before that.