Portions taken from "How to Sue in Small Claims
Court"
Professor Richard M. Alderman, University of Houston Law
Center
Overview
Suing your landlord is very easy to do. Be sure to attempt
to work out your problem first with landlord because it is
not unusual for a landlord to retaliate. While this may be
illegal for the landlord to retaliate, it is still
something you will have to deal with. See Retaliation. But often a landlord will
not do the right thing unless you get another person
looking over their shoulder, and a judge or a jury is
sometimes just what you need to get the landlord's
attention.
You do not need an attorney to represent you to file and
win a lawsuit especially in justice court (also known as of
the justice of the peace or JP court). There are over 900
justice courts in Texas and there is at least one in each
county. If there is more than one, the county is divided
into precincts. Depending on the population, each county
has between one and eight precincts. Some justice courts
have their own websites,
but you can find the one near you in the county government
section of the blue pages of the phone book. Sometimes
because of a heavy a population in a particular precinct,
the county will put more than one justice of the peace in a
precinct. They call these "places." For example, a county
might be divided into three precincts. But in the first
precinct, the county might have decided to put in two
justice courts. So in this example, Precinct One will have
a justice court called "Precinct One, Place One" and
another one called "Precinct One, Place Two." These courts
might be in the same building or they might be miles apart
(but still inside the precinct lines). Either Place One or
Place Two can hear cases in Precinct One.
If you want to see the activity of one particular justice
court, you can look at its latest
statistics generated by a state website, or checkout a
2002 report (in PDF
format) for every justice court. Of particular
importance is the "forcible entry and detainer" cases.
These are eviction cases. The statistics will show the
number of cases handled by that particular justice court
for the period you selected. The site will also show the
number of wins for the tenant (dismissals) and the number
of appeals (these could be by both the landlord and the
tenant). Before drawing too many conclusions from the
statistics, you might compare your justice court to
another. A high win rate for the landlords is not all that
unusual, but some rates will be higher than others. Also, a
high number of evictions filed could mean that a judge is
more likely to be biased against tenants just because of
the sheer number of times a judge hears about a tenant
allegedly doing something wrong. If there is more than one
justice court in your precinct (as discussed above), the
court will have a different "Place" number. It is
especially good to pick the best court inside a precinct
because you can file suit in either "Place" because they
are both authorized to decide cases in the precinct.
A justice of the peace is not always a lawyer so don't be
intimidated. These courts were designed for nonlawyers to
use. Of course, justice court has limitations -- for
example, the most you can sue for is $5,000. So, if your
claim is worth more than $5,000 you should not file in
justice court (and you should probably consider getting an
attorney if your claim is worth that much).
Some of the forms and information you need to file suit
will be at the justice court itself. But, for most every
topic of the Texas Tenant Advisor, we provided a form
lawsuit that has been tailored for that particular topic.
Each form comes with a set of instructions that will help
you fill it out. So, look for your topic on the home page and review the information
about the topic to see if you think your rights have
been violated. In many of the topics we provided a
lawsuit in the Forms area of that topic. It is best to
use this the form because it was drafted for that
particular topic. But just in case, we have also
provided a general lawsuit form for topics we have
not yet covered in the Texas Tenant Advisor.
You will have to pay a fee to the court in order to file
the lawsuit (about $20). You also will have to serve the
court papers on the landlord which also costs money (about
$50). The more people you want to serve, the more it will
cost you (usually about $50 more for each defendant). If
you are unable to pay these costs because you are indigent,
you can file an affidavit of
inability to pay costs.
After you file the case, the court will prepare the papers
to be served on the landlord at the address you provided.
The local sheriff or constable actually serves the papers
on the landlord and files a statement or "return" with the
court that gives the details of how the person or entity
was served. Once the landlord is served with the papers,
the landlord only has a limited about of time to respond or
"answer" your lawsuit. In justice court, the defendant of a
suit for damages has about ten days to file a response with
the court. (Eviction rules are different.) The defendant
landlord should send a copy of the answer to you as well.
If the defendant does not timely answer your lawsuit after
being served, you can get a automatic or "default" judgment
against the landlord. If that happens the judge will give
you a winning judgment for everything you asked for. So
keep in touch with the justice court and take action if the
landlord misses the deadline.
Once the defendant answers your lawsuit, the court will set
a trial date to hear your lawsuit.
Continue on to suing the right person.