Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Minnesota

Re: How to file a Civil complaint/Law suit

The tired old saying is, "He who represents himself has a fool for a client." Unfortunately, there's some truth in this. In a construction dispute especially, if the damages exceed $7500 (the jurisdictional limit for small claims court), you would be well advised to at least consult with a lawyer. If you want to save some dough, you could have the lawyer draft the complaint for you to sign "pro se". However, if you're acting on your own the court system is going to grind you up and spit you out!

The other option would be for you to just decide to limit your lawsuit to $7500, so that you can come in under the small claims limit. You didn't say what the total claim would be, but suppose the claim is $20k, after legal fees and expenses if you win everything you might only net $10 or 12k. So saving the headaches and expense, you could decide to go the small claims route to begin with. If things don't work out, you have a limited ability to start over in District Court.

Hope that helps. Again, I strongly advise agaist trying to "do it yourself" in District Court...