Originally Posted By: FordBroncoVWJeta
Originally Posted By: Kruse
How much "pull" or leverage does a small claims court have in your state?
Because in a lot of cases I've seen the guy who gets a claim against him can do nothing, as in make no restitution, and the courts will look the other way.
Well we both live in Kansas. If he doesn't pay you can file for pay garnishments. I believe you could also go after his assets too?
Let's me tell you a story that happened to me. In my case, though, it's not a story, it actually happened.
I had two vehicles that were stolen from me a few years ago, both of them non-running at the time. (Exact years of vehicles are not important, but one was a late 50s Chevy panel van, the other an early 40s GMC pickup) The thief was incredibly stupid on how he got caught, but let's just say he stole a riding lawn mower, drove it through snow and the cops followed the tracks to his house. LOL!) It turns out the thief had over $100K in stolen equipment on his place, my vehicles included. He also had help because he needed a trailer to take my vehicles, but he never told the cops any detail, including who helped him steal my vehicles or who gave him the trailer that he had to use. Cops towed my vehicles to the local impound yard, which turns out was about an hour and a half away from me. When I called about my vehicles, the DA told me that to get them out of impound, the chief of police would have to sign it off, the DA would have to sign it off and the judge would have to sign it off. Then I could get my vehicles out of impound. They told me I would have plenty of notice when to get them. So the call came on a Tuesday that my vehicles could be picked up. They told me that they would have to be picked up by Thursday, TWO DAYS LATER. If not picked up in two days, they would go to public auction. I had to take off work to pick up my vehicles and the impound yard charged me $150 to release them. Note this wasn't charged to the thief, but to me. When it came time for sentencing, the DA asked me if I wanted restitution or if I wanted the guy to spend time behind bars for punishment. I told them I wanted him punished. The DA told me many times that the guy has SUCH A HIGH PAYING JOB, they said he could easily do restitution. I never agreed to that. They asked me to figure out what I wanted for restitution. Figuring up damage, time and gasoline, the bill came to about $4500. The accused agreed to that and the DA gave him no time except the night he spent in jail after his arrest. The theft happened about two years ago, sentencing was over a year ago. A couple of weeks ago I checked into the DA's office to see when my restitution would be taken care of. (I already knew that answer. Obviously they didn't) They looked it up on the computer and the guy hasn't even paid his fingerprinting fees yet. They gave me the number to his probation officer and I called them. The guy is on disability and is being taken care of by Uncle Sam.
Now as far as "walking into his place with the sheriff and taking what is owed me", it's not going to happen. The arresting cops said he kept most of the stolen items because they were never claimed. The cops told me that he has moved his items, but he wont' say where. So he got to keep most of the stolen items, he spent no time in prison, as long as he makes his scheduled visits to the probation officer, they can't do anything more to him, and he lives in a government-assisted house. I am not allowed to go to his house to claim anything because that would be trespassing on my part, and he doesn't have anything worth $4500 (at least in his house) that I could take.
Now getting back to the original subject of small claims court: Do you think anybody will get anything by taking the guy to small claims court?
