The True Cost Of Small Claims Court
Often times the first thing that comes to mind when someone is owed money is to go to small claims court. Unfortunately many quickly find out that the costs of small claims court are often more than initially expected and what seemed like a cost effective decision turns into a money pit.
While the initial filing fees to file a claim in small claims court typically only ranges between $50.00 and $500.00, most inexperienced litigants fail to forecast the additional expenses that will be involved with the case. Once the case is filed the next step in the process of the lawsuit is serving the debtor. Sometimes this can be achieved easily and affordably by a sheriffs officer for only a few dollars. Sometimes however, and is often the case when pursuing a debt, the defendant actively avoids being served. When this happens plaintiffs are faced with hiring a private process server. Most private process servers will charge anywhere from $100.00 to $250.00 per attempt. When that fails plaintiffs are left having to try to serve the debtor by stake out. This is when a private process server will “camp out” near the defendants home or business waiting for them to come out to be served. These costs are usually billed on an hourly basis and range from $50.00 to $150.00 an hour and contracted in 6 hour blocks. When this fails most litigants are left with the choice of abandoning the case or digging a deeper hole and moving to publication service which can costs hundreds of dollars running an advertisement in a local publication.
The additional costs do not end at serving the debtor either. If the debtor responds to the lawsuit you may be required to conduct discovery or depositions to properly prepare for trial. If you have a deposition conducted the cost of a court reporter, billed at an hourly rate is the responsibility of the party taking the deposition. Additionally if the case is ordered into mediation or arbitration, both the plaintiff and the defendant will be required to split the fees for the arbitrator or mediator which is also billed at an hourly rate, usually between $150.00 and $300.00 an hour.
While no one wants to shell out large amounts of money to try to collect a debt that is owed, small claims court is often times an expensive option in a cheap wrapper. Instead of risking large sums of money trying to collect what is already lost, consider retaining a debt collection agency. Collection agencies charge a percentage of what they collect but do not charge when they are not successful. If you are owed money and need assistance getting paid call us at 407-374-0000 or complete the form on this page to speak with one of our claim specialists.
