I am suing my former landlord in Los Angeles in Small Claims court for excessive rents and misuse of security deposit.
The question I have is as follows:
I sued a married couple, but I sued them as individuals, separately, as per the small claims clerk’s instructions.
So does it follow that if only one of them shows up, the other one automatically loses, therefore in order for them to fight me at all they both must appear in court?
(If my assumption is true, it would be great because they live two states away and one of them must always be there for their kids and their business.)
they were served by mail two weeks ago, the court date is in 3 weeks and just today I got a message from the wife asking me to call her. I feel fairly certian they’ve spent the last two weeks trying to figure out how only one of them can come to court for both and have learned that they can’t so she’s trying to convince me to back off or take a settlement.
So my legal eagle friends…?
(The IANAL will be assumed unless otherwise stated…)
I work in a different jurisdiction but I’m presuming that our basic principles of law are fairly similar.
My advice would be to give her a call and see what she’s offering. If it’s a settlement then take time to consider whether it’s fair, bearing in mind it means you’ll be spared going to Court, and if you’re reasonably happy take it. It’ll mean you can put the whole thing behind you AND save your State valuable tax Dollars.
If it’s to say back off then put the phone down and prepare to crush her with the hammer of justice, or turn up and hope you win.
Generally speaking, if you appear in court on behalf of a party, you gotta be an attorney. Assuming that neither of the defendants is an attorney, I would say - yeah they both gotta show up.
If only one shows up, you might ask for a default and inquest against the other. And object to any participation by the spouse who is present.
However, I would think that a lot of judges would allow one spouse to appear in this situation on behalf of both. Or sever the case, or allow phone participation. In the interest of justice.
So my answer is maybe
by the way I’m totally shooting from the hip here. standard disclaimer about legal advice, etc.
Oh and by the way, I agree that you should try to settle the case. Trust me, your former landlord will spend the next couple weeks inventing lies aimed at derailing your case. Your maximum leverage is NOW.
I talked to the court. They said that technically, both must show up, however, on the day of the hearing the judge has the discretion to accept one spouse representing the other.
But they can’t know whether the judge will go for that until the day of the hearing. Cool.
