How to Prepare Evidence for Small Claims Court

Are you being sued by someone and now you need to defend yourself but don’t know how? Perhaps, you are going to sue someone for an injustice done to you but can’t afford a lawyer and need to know how to present your case in court. Regardless of what side of the issue you are on, you are going to need evidence. Here are a few suggestions on how to prepare evidence for court.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Legal documents including letters, checks, photos
• Binder
• Pen and paper

1. You will need every single document that you can get that has anything to do with the issue at hand. These include bank statements and bank books, cancelled checks, receipts--anything to prove that you made a payment; invoices, bills of laden--anything to prove there is an amount owing or paid. Some other documents could be promissory notes, leases, rental agreements, photographs or sales contracts.
2. Make sure all letters, invoices and statements that you produce as evidence are on official letterhead, as notes or figures jotted down on paper are hard to verify.
3. Make sure your witnesses have firsthand knowledge of the facts and are not third parties who were told about the issues.
4. Put all your information in a binder or folder in chronological order. That way you can present each piece of evidence in the order that the events occurred.
5. Make sure you pay special attention to court dates and plan to attend all of them. The court will notify you of most of the court dates but not all. f you cannot attend, then you must notify the court in writing. See their written info and follow their time limitations and format.
6. If you have any concerns about your evidence, what qualifies as evidence or how to present it, you should get legal advice. The court office can give you the phone number of lawyers who give a few minutes of free legal advice and it would be worth it to you to see them. Do not rely on the advice of your friends.
7. Sometimes you will need an object to verify your claim but it might be impractical to bring it to court, such as a car, boat or your furnace. What you need to do is get someone to take many pictures from all points of view of the object. Then have them go to go the courthouse and swear an affidavit stating that they took the photos and when they took them. You will submit this as evidence right before you present the pictures. Do not take the pictures yourself.
8. You will need to prepare at least two other copies of everything that you have as evidence. One copy must be submitted to the court and attached to your claim prior to your trial to become part of the court record. As well, one copy must be served to the opposing party at least 30 days before the trial. Then you will need one copy to hand in at the trial as your evidence.
9. If something you want to submit as evidence during the trial is refused by the judge, put it aside and move on to the next piece of evidence. You will have an opportunity to suggest why it's important but the judge may still refuse it, so don't lose credibility by arguing. Just continue on.

Tips & Warnings

• You should always go to the court office and get as much information as possible ahead of time on how to present yourself for trial. Don't rely on someone else's experience. If you need help, get legal advice.