My father recently won his small claim against his loan servicer who was harassing him. $40. $15 for him and $25 for the city for filing the claim. That's an hour of somebody's salary at the court-house.

A couple months ago, he decided to test a hypothesis after feeling frustrated and fed up with this company that had been making his life miserable for months. So he marched down to the court house, and filed a small claim against his mortgage service for...wasting his time on the phone.

That was the charge.

Wasting his time on the phone.

The bastards just put him on hold for too long during regular work hours. Time he could have spent working, they harassed him on the phone for hours of his time.

NOW, it needs to be pointed out that being put on hold was merely the official CLAIM for the lawsuit against a company that had been harassing him for months about a mortgage loan modification...of COURSE he's not filing a lawsuit JUST for being put on hold.

Anyway, the reason he picked as cause of damages was wasting his time on the phone.

Nothing fancy. But something with demonstrable damages. Nothing like emotional harm from reading about spilled oil in the Gulf for example, or ruining your family's life by denying a legitimate health insurance claim. You don't have to get terribly creative to come up with a reason to file a small claim against a large company.

Anyway...

They never challenged the case. They never showed up. They just cut him a check for $40. $15 for him and $25 to cover the fee to file the claim.

Now...my father is a lawyer, just so you know. He'd been practicing for over 35 years. Semi-retired now.

And did you know that if a company doesn't pay a judgement, then the plaintiff can seize one of the company's assets if they don't pay up?

Did you know that?

So if they don't pay their $40, you can seize, literally, anything. Anything they own.

Okay. One guy sues a major corporation for fourty bux.

Big fucking deal.

But if its 10,000 people.

100,000 people.



A million people filing little small claims here and there...and remember, that's not just money for YOU.

It's money for your CITY.

Money for civil services.

Money for cops, and fire departments, schools.

Hell. It's...it's your civic DUTY to sue these companies.

Sure, they could hire a million lawyers to defend themselves against a million $15 lawsuits. But that's going to have a shiny price tag.

Again as a recap

Let's say you have a BIG legitimate legal issue with a company and massive damages.



But you can't fight them in court, because you're broke and they have a phalanx of lawyers and can make a direct legal challenge VERY expensive, going into the millions if they want to. Even if you're in the right, they can appeal and appeal and appeal until you run out of money.

So you hit them with something small. STILL damages, but something small.

You CAN afford to take them to small claims. It costs $25 and you recuperate that money in the claim.

And if 1000 people hit the same company with small claims a few times a year....it causes them damages.

It's not about the long phone calls.

It's about causing them pain and extracting, even in drops, the damages they've caused.

We're not helpless down here. There are tools at our disposal. It's just a matter of our willingness to pick up the daggers. There are some risks involved...you may be denied and lose the small claims money you put in.