# Tell Me About Small Claims Court **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 23, 2013, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-small-claims-court/661716 "2013-06-23T18:23:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![bathsheba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@bathsheba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bathsheba)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-small-claims-court/661716/122 "2014-03-26T10:05:33Z")
Update please. ---
**Author:** ![madrabbitwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c37758/32.png) [@madrabbitwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madrabbitwoman)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-small-claims-court/661716/123 "2014-03-26T10:37:50Z")
yes please ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-small-claims-court/661716/124 "2014-03-26T12:37:18Z")
Oh, right, updates! > [@Senegoid](#): > > I don’t recall ever hearing that one can be arrested for failure to pay a civil judgement. The horror stories one always reads are more along the lines of the parties jolting along until the plaintiff either gets some or all of the judgment or gives up in exasperation. Can she really be arrested? And charged with what? (Contempt?) The judge told her that she (the judge) would issue a bench warrant if the [del]idiot[/del] former employer either failed to show for a future hearing or failed to pay. Presumably, the charge would be contempt. > [@](#): > > ETA: Also: About that court-ordered $100/month payment: Will this require defendant to “voluntarily” make a payment each month (good luck with that), or does this authorize/require the bank to make the payment out of her frozen accounts on her behalf? “Voluntary” payment which isn’t even called that - it’s a court ordered payment. The first one was due for March. _Apparently_, (this came out in a March 21 hearing, last Friday) doofus can’t figure out how to make a payment. First, she tried to pay with a personal check. The court system doesn’t take anyone’s personal check. More to the point, almost no one is taking this person’s personal check anymore because so many of them have been written on rubber. She claims she tried to pay a second time but there was some issue or other I’m not clear on. She DID bring $200 in cash to the hearing, for March and April. The judge sort of sighed and said OK, that seemed to be a good faith effort to pay and instructed the clerk to accept the cash. (I heard this from my lawyer, who represented me at the hearing. I was not required to attend). So I am supposed to be receiving these funds in “about 10 days after” that, so… next week? She was also required to issue a corrected W-2 for the ACTUAL amount she paid me and claimed to have withheld to replace the one containing numbers she apparently pulled out of her ass. We did not get anything from the bank accounts. We were told either take the $600 from the bank accounts and consider the payments done, or continue with the $100/month payments for the full amount. Something about leaving her destitute. Since I actually would like the _entire_ amount, and she only has to pay 7 months to give me a better deal than taking the bank money, we opted for that. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-small-claims-court/661716/125 "2014-03-27T02:42:13Z")
So how _is_ someone supposed to make payments? Does the Court prefer Money Orders, or bitcoins, or virtual quatloos? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-small-claims-court/661716/126 "2014-03-27T12:25:02Z")
Cash or money order, I presume. Maybe you can set up an automatic payment? Don’t really know, hope I never have to make such payments. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-small-claims-court/661716/127 "2014-03-28T17:41:33Z")
Broomstick, I gotta tell you, you have the best sagas. First, your epic in the zit thread is legendary. Now this. Have you thought about becoming a writer? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-small-claims-court/661716/128 "2014-03-28T18:24:48Z")
I actually HAVE published some of my writing, but thanks for urging me to keep continuing my efforts. I just keep my business and message-board personae separate ---
**Author:** ![bathsheba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@bathsheba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bathsheba)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2014, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-small-claims-court/661716/129 "2014-05-03T10:58:15Z")
Another month. Time for an update. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2014, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-small-claims-court/661716/130 "2014-05-03T12:39:14Z")
The lawyer and I got our payments for March and April. Yay! Since her deadline for this month was something like 3 days ago and all this has to wind through the system it’s early yet yet for May, but I am trying to remain optimistic she’ll pay it without needing further coercion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-small-claims-court/661716.md?page=6)