Excerpt from a Law Podcast

In my digital travels, I read and listen to a lot of things. Found this podcast on YouTube and wanted to share an excerpt. I might share the other one here too.

The first excerpt is the two attorneys discussing with the host the topic of small claims court in general. I chuckled when I heard this. If you’ve been following this saga, you might chuckle too.

Streamlined. Not a lot of motions.

Unless you hire a lawyer from Gunderson, Palmer, Nelson & Ashmore, LLP, in Rapid City South Dakota. If they have no defense, you’ll get motions. You will be inundated with motions. That 15 minutes will be blown into a few hours and the case will be pushed down the calendar.

Many years ago, I took my previous landlord to small claims court. He was a really nice guy, but he was holding on to a security deposit and I felt it was not lawful. I was right. But the point I wish to make here is that I had not done this sort of thing before so I arrived early and sat through a couple other cases.

I’m suggesting you do the same thing. I was pretty nervous (apparently that does not go away, even for lawyers), and watching the process and listening to stories, really helped me be more comfortable with the judge.

I don’t really remember much about the judge. It seemed like it was a woman, but I’ve no particular memory. I think I mentioned this story in another post, so I don’t want to open it all back up again, but I just want to say that one of the cases ended with a person losing and thanking the judge and her opponent for listening. She just wanted to be heard.

My own case was a couple minutes of me just restating what the case was ad then many minutes of the judge listening to the landlord and nodding and when he was done she simply asked him if he was aware of the law, and she sided for me.

I’m not sure how motivated I would be to go to court on a he said/she said. I would not want to have to prove my side. To prove something happened. In this current case, I’m sure there are a few people in the road district that think that is exactly what is happening. But it isn’t. The Board and the lawyer know full well they broke the law. They know they have lost. They are just trying to string this along and drag it out in the hopes I give up.

Not gonna happen, but a board can dream. 🙂