You cannot file small claims for professional malpractice by a doctor, dentist, or lawyer. You also cannot file for alimony or support payments due to a marital or domestic dispute or a claim due to a probate matter. These types of claims must be handled by a different legal process. Breach of contract are some of the most common cases in small claims court.

You can also ask friends or family for a referral for a good lawyer.

You can find a list of Special Civil Part Offices in New Jersey by county at: http://www. njcourts. gov. If the defendant on the claim does not live or own a business in New Jersey, you must file the complaint in the county where the cause of the claim occurred.

Make sure you also identify the person or business as an individual, sole proprietorship, partnership, or corporation. Do not include any personal, confidential identifiers about the person or business you are suing, such as their Social Security number, driver’s license number, credit card number, or financial account number.

For example, you may note the person owes you $5,000 USD in back rent for 6 months. Or you may note the person owes you $7,000 USD for property damage to your home. The limit for your claim depends on who you, the plaintiff, are, not who the other party is.

If you cannot afford the filing fee, you can apply to the court to qualify as an indigent and get the judge to waive the filing fee.

Try not to have contact with the defendant before the court date, as you do not want to risk losing your claim by saying something incriminating to the defendant.

You can also bring other documents like bills, contracts, leases, estimates, letters, text messages, and photographs to court to support your claim. Your lawyer should be able to advise you on the best records and documents you can bring to court to prove your case. Everything that you would like to show the judge, you should bring with you to the hearing. You should organize that evidence with descriptions, dates, etc. Do your best to make it easy for the judge to understand what is going on in your case. Remember that the duty of proving your case is yours. It’s your responsibility to show why you should win. You need to be able to lay out what happened in a very clear way because if you’re not clear with the judge, the judge won’t understand what is going on.

For example, if you are filing a small claim for property damage to your home, you may ask a neighbor who witnessed the damage to testify in court.

You may take an agreement at the settlement hearing if the third party rules in your favor or if the defendant agrees to your terms. You may turn down the settlement offered at the hearing if it is less you are asking for or if you feel it does not do your claim justice.

If you are able to afford a lawyer in court, this is ideal, as they can represent you and ensure you state your case properly. Many times, though, the amount you are suing for will be more than what it will cost for you to hire a lawyer.

You must then appear in court on a new date and provide witnesses as well as evidence to support your appeal. It costs $250 USD to file an appeal and you must also include a $300 USD deposit with the Clerk of the Appellate Division within 30 days of the Notice of Appeal. If your appeal is successful, the $300 USD deposit will be refunded.