Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Montana
small claims vs. civil court
I sold a car to friend on monthly payements. There is a certified laon agreement signed by both of us. She has defaulted now for 9 months on paying anymore except the down payment. she also, took a personal loan using the car. she did not pay the loan back and so the laon agency took the car. I can not get the car or my money...I was told that this was a civil case and not small claims. Which is it and why. she still owes me 1900 dollars.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: small claims vs. civil court
It is both a civil (rather than criminal) matter, and you can take it to Small Claims, so long as your demand is no more than $5,000. A claim for $1,900 is well with the jurisdictional limit for Small Claims. All you can get is a judgment for money damages; you can't get the car back.
Re: small claims vs. civil court
The clerks in the small claims office don't explain things very well. Small claims court and justice court are the two civil courts available to you. For some strange reason, they like to call justice court a civil court when both small claims and justice court are civil courts. The difference between the two are that in small claims, the amount you are seeking must be definite. That means that if you are owed $1900 and will only sue for that amount, then you can sue in small claims. Plus, small claims now has a limit of $7500, so I would think that you could file in small claims. If you are going to sue for anything that is speculative and it is disputed how much you are owed, then you would file in justice court.
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