Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Arizona

Hello,

Thank you for reading my question and giving free advice. I am a 26 year old and I have a 32 year old brother. Last week I was having some trouble with my computers battery. The computer is a laptop bye the way. It worked as normal when plugged in but either the battery was not holding a charge or was not being charged by my machine.

My older brother has the same laptop so I called him up and went over his house and everything was fine between the two of us. So when we got to the computers my brother was playing around with things on my computer and not listening to me. He then became frustrated and slammed the monitor of my $900 laptop closes causing the LCD to shatter and now the machine won't work at all.

I was wondering what my options are?

Of course I tried working it out with my older brother who obviously lost his temper but he seems to think that he didn't break it.

I have spoken with my parents about the situation who really don't want to get involved since we are a little old for this type of behavior.

I know there is small claims court but would this even be worth it? Could you explain this?

Should I file a police report to document the situation? What would this be called vandalism?

Is there anything else I can do?


Asked on 8/01/09, 7:38 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Joan Bundy Joan Bundy Law

You have a two-part situation. The first is that you had a computer problem that needed to be taken care of by the manufacturer. Maybe you had a bum part or something. You could ask for that portion to be fixed or replaced by the company.

The second is that your brother caused further damage to your computer through his actions of losing his temper. He could be charged with criminal damage although that might require a showing of intent to cause the damage, which I don't think he did. It was accidental/negligent at most. If he refuses to pay for the portion of damage he caused, yes you could take him to small claims court. Also, your computer may not be completely inoperable as you may just be unable to see anything on the screen at present. Best of luck!

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Answered on 8/07/09, 9:50 am


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