Small Claims

The Placer County Small Claims Advisor 530-823-1019

This is a voicemail-based system. Leave a message and they will call you back. It can sometimes take a few days if they are very busy. Before calling the small claims advisor, we recommend that you check the information available at these Web sites, which is very thorough and will probably answer your question.

The Department of Consumer Affairs:
http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/small_claims/index.shtml

Sacramento County Small Claims Advisor Webpage
http://www.scacadvice.com/

California Courts Online Self Help Center
http://www.courts.ca.gov/selfhelp-smallclaims.htm

Filling out the forms and filing your case:

You can fill the forms out yourself at the Judicial Council Web site, or print them out and fill them out by hand. Or, you can use I-CAN! Legal, which will print out the forms after you answer questions in the Web site.

Judicial Council Forms listing. Select “Small Claims” from the drop down menu. If you select your form from the column labeled “Fillable Forms,” you will be able to fill out the form in your web browser and then print it.

http://www.courts.ca.gov/forms.htm

I-CAN! Legal will prepare your forms automatically after you answer questions.
http://www.icandocs.org/

Instructions for starting your small claims case:

START YOUR SMALL CLAIMS CASE

Small claims court allows people an easy way to resolve civil disputes of up to $10,000. Small claims court uses simplified forms and neither party is allowed to have an attorney.

You will need the following forms, available at www.courts.ca.gov:
Plaintiff’s Claim and Order to go to Small Claims Court (SC-100)
Notice of Entry of Judgment (SC-130)
Proof of Service (SC-104)

Step 1: Filling out the paperwork

Fill out the SC-100 completely.
Put the names and addresses of the parties at the top of the SC-130. The Judge will fill out the rest after the court date.

Step 2: Making Copies and Filing the paperwork

Sign and date the paperwork that you filled out in Step 1. Make two copies. Bring the original and two copies to the court for filing.
There is a sliding scale filing fee for small claims actions:
$30.00   $00.00 - $1,500
$50.00   $1,501 - $5,000
$75.00   $5,001 - $10,000
If paying by check, make checks payable to Placer County Superior Court. You must also provide a stamped, addressed envelope for yourself, and a stamped envelope addressed to the defendant at the time you file your papers.
The court is located at: The Bill Santucci Justice Center, 10820 Justice Center Drive, Roseville CA 95678.   You may also file by mail. Our mailing address is: Placer County Superior Court, P.O. Box 619072, Roseville CA 95661. If you do file by mail, include a self-addressed stamped envelope to get your copies back.

Step 3: Serving the papers

You must serve a copy of the SC-100 on the other party. You should have the papers served by someone other than you over the age of 18. A Sheriff or professional process server can also do this for you for a fee.

Step 4: Filling out the proof of service