Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Re: How to find out amount of small claims filings?

Some California courts have their case indexes available online. Other courts haven't done this, so you need to check the website of the court in question.

Once you have the case numbers, you can go to the court house and review the files. I'm not sure if the small claims judge would listen to the argument, but you can always try.

You should remind that the judge that an assignee (a person or business that sues on behalf of another, such as a collection agency) can�t sue in small claims court. Sometimes collection aggencies will purchase debt and file suits to try and intimidate the debtor into paying.

Re: How to find out amount of small claims filings?

Mr. Starrett is correct. Some counties have searchable databases online that you can search, and they will give you a list of cases by the person's name. San Diego County is one of these, as is Riverside, Orange (just recently), San Bernardino, and San Francisco. Other counties, like Los Angeles' county require a fee if you want to search online from your home computer, otherwise you must go to an actual courthouse and use one of the computer terminals available for public use.

Email me if you are in one of these counties and you need guidance on how to search.

Very truly yours,