Legal Question in Business Law in Texas

Re: small claim courts

Small Claims is like Judge Wapner on TV, except here both parties will stand in front of the judge without any lecterns. You can go to the courthouse and watch other cases being heard, so you get a feel for the judge and how he or she conducts their business.

If the check was good when you gave it to them, they were paid. The fact that they lost the check doesn't mean that they can come back at you.

You should still have that money in your account because the check never cleared and the money was never taken out of your account. However, if you spent the money because you knew the check was lost, then you may be responsible. It'll be up to the judge to determine whether you owe the money or not.

Re: small claim courts

Peter Bradie has already answered your question. I agree with what he said and would like to add a couple of things: first, figure out what you're going to say to support your side of the case. If you believe it would not be fair to make you pay for the car after three years, you'll want to explain why it's not fair.

I would need to know a bit more about your case to say for sure, but one thing I'd certaily want to look at is a Texas law that says where you owe a debt to someone but there is no written contract, the person only has two years to file a lawsuit against you. This is called a statute of limitation. The reason for statutes of limitation is so that at some point in time, a person can go on with his business without worrying about whether he's going to be sued for something that happened a long time ago. It sounds like that's exactly the situation you have now.

After you think of all the reasons that it would be unfair to make you pay for the car after three years, try to look at the situation from the car dealer's point of view. If you were in his shoes, what would you say to prove that it IS fair to make you pay. Then think of what you can tell the judge to show that you are right and the car dealer is wrong.