Re: First Small Claims case, any landlord advice?

Re: First Small Claims case, any landlord advice? by Anonymous on September 15, 2014 @19:41

Taken from my post entitled "and The Judge Said . . on 9-12-2014 on the LPA forum:

I am a landlord in Texas in a major city. I am having problems with the reconciliation of a security deposit where the tenant owes me money. A couple of LPA forum members here advised me to go to the courthouse and speak to my local JP judge.

I did so yesterday. I sat through a small claims case as an observer and then the judge invited me to ask questions. I had a private audience with him and he was very cooperative.

I asked him about acceptable evidence. I asked him if I needed to have paid receipts for the damages or whether pictures and estimates were acceptable. He told me that small claims court does not use the full legal breadth of Texas law. He has considerable leeway in settling cases quickly and efficiently. In short he told me that his decision would be based on credibility; the credibility of the case and the credibility of the evidence, and perhaps the credibility of the plaintiff and defendant.

Another metric is the preponderance of evidence: "A preponderance of evidence has been described as just enough evidence to make it more likely than not that the fact the claimant seeks to prove is true. It is difficult to translate this definition and apply it to evidence in a case, but the definition serves as a helpful guide to judges and juries in determining whether a claimant has carried his or her burden of proof."

What kind of proof can a tenant have that he paid you the rent he owes you? A fake receipt? What kind of proof can a tenant have that establishes that he did no damage? Can the tenant provide a receipt from the water company that proves he paid them?

The JP judge invited me to sit in on some eviction cases, which I am going to do this week. I am also hoping to speak with one or more small claims/eviction attorneys in case I need to hire one of them. As it turns out I am going tomorrow and they have fifty six cases on the docket. 56!

IMO: Two important things: credibility and preponderance of evidence. IMO.

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