But if they do show up and know how to play the game, buckle up. You’ll be in and out of there for years. The judge will ask you to settle for a fraction of what you’re owed. When you finally do get the judgement, they won’t pay it. Then you need to drag them back to court to get them on a time-payment plan… then they make a few payments, stop paying and move to another state. Then you need to domesticate your judgement in that state, and maybe you can start to think about garnishing wages or drafting from accounts of theirs. By then, you’ve wasted so much time and money, you’re doing it mostly for spite at this point.
Are you speaking from experience?
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I don't think this applies for small claims? Small claims are a single court session after which a judgement is delivered, though collection is still your problem. Of course, the threshold for small claims is fairly low.