How to Appeal A Small Claims Court Judgment

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Have you ever represented yourself in a Small Claims Court trial and lost the case? Did you ever have a judgment made against you that you believe is in error or feel that the whole trial was unfair and it’s not right that you lost? Have you ever wanted to appeal the judge’s decision but never knew how? Here are a few suggestions on how to appeal a Small Claims Court judgment.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

copy of the trial transcript
legal advice
money

How to Appeal a Small Claims Court Judgment

Step1

Order a copy of the transcript and ask the reporter to please expedite its production.

Step2

Give the transcript to a lawyer to examine so that you can know if the matter can be appealed. See article, How to Choose The Right Lawyer for You.

Step3

Find out from the lawyer if his services are necessary to appeal this and how much it will cost you, or whether you can do it yourself.

Step4

If the matter can be appealed, then as soon as possible file an appeal with the court office. Remember, there is a time limitation involved so make sure you don’t go passed the time that you can appeal the matter.

Step5

If you believe that your evidence wasn’t properly presented to the Court or that you had last minute evidence that never got accepted, find out from the lawyer if the matter can be appealed or if you can ask for a retrial of the facts.

Step6

If the matter can be appealed, you choose to do it without counsel, you will need to contact the court office and get all the information available on how to appeal your case.

Step7

You will then need to order several copies of the transcript, and you will know how many from the court information booklet.

Tips & Warnings

The cost of the transcripts can easily outweigh the reward you are seeking so you need to get an estimate of the cost from the reporter and then consider if you are willing to pay that out against what you hope to gain.
You also need to consider that you could lose the appeal, so count the costs with a lawyer ahead of time.