Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Re: Small Claims Lawsuit

You will need to check the with the local city government to see if a particular business license is required.

Generally, to do business under a fictitious name there should have been a dba filed.

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Re: Small Claims Lawsuit

All the judge wants to know is whether they owe you the $1500.00. Take in your proof that you paid the money and did not get value for your money. You may want to throw in that they don't have a business license after you check to make sure it's against the law to conduct business without a license but I don't think it's worth wasting your time. All it would do is be a little extra bad thing to say. The real issue is whether or not they owe you money. If they owe you money you will get your judgement. Then your problem will be to collect the judgement. You have have to hold another hearing for that and often these people come in without any money and lie to the judgement officer and say they have no money and there is not much you can do. But the first thing is to get the judgement. All you have to do to get the judgement is prove they owe you the money. Have good, documented proof that you paid the money and did not receive value in return.

Re: Small Claims Lawsuit

Not registering a dba or not having a business license does not effect your case. If they did not deliver the goods, then you should win. You can and should bring up their misrepresentations about their work history.