Legal Question in Real Estate Law in North Carolina

I recently filed a small claims law suit against a tenant for non-payment of rent, and damage to my property. The tenant, a career criminal, with considerable experience in court, has counter-sued me, and has asked for the case be heard in district court. The initial hearing in small claims court will be in 10 days. I would like to change my complaint to be more suited for district court: specifying details, raise the amount of my claims, list defenses against his claims, claiming that his counterclaim is frivolous, and asking the court for treble damages and court costs and legal fees. How should I proceed? Is my reply document called an 'Plaintiff's Answer to Defendant's Counterclaim'? Should I prepare and have this served before the initial small claims hearing? or afterwards? It is likely that the defendant will be granted the transfer to district court since he is counter sueing for $10k (for a bunch of nonsense claims).


Asked on 10/12/11, 9:29 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Melissa Brumback Ragsdale Liggett PLLC

Sorry to hear about your tenant woes. Yes, you should reply to Defendant's Counterlcaim. Your document would be titled "Plaintiff's Reply to Defendant's Counterclaim". If you can, it would be best to have it done before the hearing, but it's not crucial. You could even bring the reply to the small claims hearing itself. Since Defendant is asking for 10k, the matter *will* be kicked to district court by the magistrate (unless the Defendant fails to show up for small claims court).

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Answered on 10/13/11, 6:57 am


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