Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Filing lawsuit out of state

Sounds like for the amount at issue, this is a perfect case for Small Claims. Unfortunately Small Claims does not permit attorneys to appear on your behalf. There is nothing stopping you from filing the lawsuit by mail in San Diego Small Claims Court, but you would need to personally attend the hearing.

The other alternative, if you want to pay an attonrney, is to file a simple conversion lawsuit in Superior Court as a limited jurisdiction matter. However for the dollar amount at issue, I doubt that would be very cost effective.

Bottom line -- just go the Small Claims route and plan a trip around your hearing date. You can go to the local court website for instructions on how to file a small claims action. Good luck.