Small claims court

[Number Six]

There are snarky comments on all sides; the legal maxim I mentioned above does not apply to criminal theft; hence, even if the police had sufficient evidence that a theft occurred, they might not have sufficient evidence to even have reasonable suspicion that a specific person committed the theft.

In other words, in spite of the fact that the police do not seem to be helping you, Number Six, they may be doing their job properly. However, you don't need their address to sue the employees, in small claims court, or otherwise. In many states, you can hire an unrelated person to serve them at the car wash. If you have a legitimate claim against the owner, you would need to locate him or his legal agent in order to sue him. And the cost of service (as well as the cost of filing) can be added to the claim. (If you serve a party which the judge finds unrelated to the case; e.g., if you serve the owner, but there is no legitimate claim against the owner, the judge may very well refuse to include the cost of serving the owner in the recovery, even if you win.)

Again, I don't know if you have sufficient evidence to win in small claims court, but you undoubtedly have a real claim, unlike many in the Sovereign threads. I could be wrong, but I don't think any of the posters are real lawyers. It's up to you.

I, personally, do not think it's worth the effort, considering the probability of failure, but I don't consider success impossible.

Thanks for the helpful comments. The collectible was purchased on a Thursday and taken on a Friday. Because I believe it is important for citizens to use the law to their advantage even if the end result is likely to not succeed. Apparently there are no others on this site who have used small claims court on stolen item cases or can cite similar cases that they have seen as I asked about earlier, because case law in any area is vital because there are thousands of people with varying levels of success who have had similar circumstances. Most shrugged their shoulders turning their anger inward, some at least tried for legal remedies.

[Number Six]

"I stand by my side of the case, the snarky comments are inappropriate for moderators, but par for the course."


Stand as much as you want, but you will be standing there for a long time and will get no coin or recompense for it. This is simply a case where you are not happy with the answer you got; you already had your mind made up about the situation and were simply looking for people to agree with you. Instead of being gracious and accepting the advice and information that was provided by people early on in this thread (and thereby learning something for the future), you instead decided to argue about it, tell these people in so many words they were wrong, and blame others for not curing a problem that you had in part created. ("Observer")

So I have some questions for the two moderators, as "Observer" and the judge were double-teaming me; probably questions they have never been asked on this site.

Do you always remove valuables from your cars when you are not in them? Have you ever done a small court claim? Do you have any recent legal experiences? What was your success rate in percentage terms? What is your reason for being a moderator here? Have you brought "moderation" to the site? How healthy are you? Are you currently on any legal or illegal medications and could any of them be impairing your judgment or ability to serve? How moderate is your alcohol consumption if you drink? How do you react to the suffering of others? Do you get a sick delight or are you grieved truly wanting to help those suffering get to the root of the problem? How would you describe your primary philosophical or religious orientation or moral code? Have you ever requested or received compensation from a government or other entity for reporting an issue? Did you report the person or group for justice's sake or for personal enrichment? If reviews of various moderators were done on this site how would you rate? Do you have any legal judgments against you in your past? I realize these are a lot of questions, feel free to split off the query as a separate thread.

[webhick]

How healthy are you? Are you currently on any legal or illegal medications and could any of them be impairing your judgment or ability to serve? How moderate is your alcohol consumption if you drink? How do you react to the suffering of others? Do you get a sick delight or are you grieved truly wanting to help those suffering get to the root of the problem? How would you describe your primary philosophical or religious orientation or moral code? Have you ever requested or received compensation from a government or other entity for reporting an issue? Did you report the person or group for justice's sake or for personal enrichment? If reviews of various moderators were done on this site how would you rate? Do you have any legal judgments against you in your past? I realize these are a lot of questions, feel free to split off the query as a separate thread.

What the hell did I just read?

[Famspear]

So I have some questions for the two moderators, as "Observer" and the judge were double-teaming me; probably questions they have never been asked on this site.

Do you always remove valuables from your cars when you are not in them? Have you ever done a small court claim? Do you have any recent legal experiences? What was your success rate in percentage terms? What is your reason for being a moderator here? Have you brought "moderation" to the site? How healthy are you? Are you currently on any legal or illegal medications and could any of them be impairing your judgment or ability to serve? How moderate is your alcohol consumption if you drink? How do you react to the suffering of others? Do you get a sick delight or are you grieved truly wanting to help those suffering get to the root of the problem? How would you describe your primary philosophical or religious orientation or moral code? Have you ever requested or received compensation from a government or other entity for reporting an issue? Did you report the person or group for justice's sake or for personal enrichment? If reviews of various moderators were done on this site how would you rate? Do you have any legal judgments against you in your past? I realize these are a lot of questions, feel free to split off the query as a separate thread.

Dear Number Six: I haven't been participating in this particular thread, but I have read through it and I get the impression that this coin meant a lot to you. Either that, or you are upset about something else (although I'm not clear on what that something else would be).

You're really charging off into the weeds at this point.

The information that Observer and JRB have been giving you on what the law is and on the obstacles you would face in small claims court has been accurate information.

We realize that you're upset by your loss and by what I assume is a growing awareness on your part that success in recouping that loss is unlikely. The tenor of the response provided by Observer and JRB has been reasonable in my view.

[Famspear]

....Apparently there are no others on this site who have used small claims court on stolen item cases or can cite similar cases that they have seen as I asked about earlier, because case law in any area is vital because there are thousands of people with varying levels of success who have had similar circumstances......

Decisions in small claims court do not generally result in written, published opinions by the judges, and decisions in small claims court are not generally appealed to a higher court where a written opinion might be published. Case law in the United States is based on written, published court opinions, and you aren't going to see very much case law related to decisions in small claims courts about thefts -- or about anything else.

Further, the importance of a court opinion lies primarily in the rule(s) of law that would followed by the court in that case. A decision as to whether to believe the victim's testimony and other evidence offered by the victim is not generally the kind of thing that would result in meaningful "case law" -- even if small claims court decisions DID result in massive numbers of reported, written, published opinions. Those kinds of decisions relate to questions of fact, not questions of law.

Did the victim actually leave his coin in the car? Was the coin missing after the car came out of the car wash? Those are questions of fact, not questions of law.

So, even if lots of other people have litigated theft cases in courts that do publish written opinions at the conclusions of the proceedings, the "case law" from those proceedings might not be very material to your situation with your coin.

[The Observer]

And I think Famspear's post pretty much allows us to close this thread on a more positive note.