Police to ignore California impound law amid concern of fairness to illegal immigrant

[Greg in LA]

I just finished going to small claims court against my former landlord and management company. They got greedy and witheld money from my security deposit and violated a several civil codes in the process. When I started to point out the civil codes that were violated, the judge just said that those were "Legal questions and that's not what we deal with here".
Translated: We don't care about the civil code laws, we're not going to enforce them.

My thoughts were, if you don't deal with civil code violations in court where do you deal with them.

What did I learn... the lawmakers can pass all the laws they want, it dosn't meen the judges or police are going to inforce them, unless they want too.

The same applies to immigration laws, sadly we know this all too well.

[Ayatollahgondola]

Originally Posted by Greg in LA

I just finished going to small claims court against my former landlord and management company. They got greedy and witheld money from my security deposit and violated a several civil codes in the process. When I started to point out the civil codes that were violated, the judge just said that those were "Legal questions and that's not what we deal with here".
Translated: We don't care about the civil code laws, we're not going to enforce them.

My thoughts were, if you don't deal with civil code violations in court where do you deal with them.

What did I learn... the lawmakers can pass all the laws they want, it dosn't meen the judges or police are going to inforce them, unless they want too.

The same applies to immigration laws, sadly we know this all too well.

Greg,

If you were around during 2005 through 2007, you may know of my battle with a shithead landlord. I feel your pain. But small claims court is a throwback to the king's common law courts, and they barely resemble anything in civil court in many jurisdictions. They're basically meant to dispense with smaller disputes so they don't pollute the big boy courts, or, to a lesser degree, so they don't erupt into larger disputes outside the courts, ie violence, murder, mayhem, etc.

That said, I don't understand why a judge or commissioner would say something like that. Were the procedings recorded thant you know of? Personally, I wouldn't ever use the small claims courts in my jurisdiction, and I'd be inclined to extend that to just about any jurisdiction in this state right now. There's really no benefit or protection in it for you. I know it's relatively cheap to file, and you don't need a lawyer, but the old sayings apply that "you get what you pay for" and "any man that represents himself in court has a fool for a client". If your claim is actionable and you have a good case, the courts will award the amount you seek, and fair attorney fees anyway. And you get a real court, with rules, appointed judge or jury, and an appealable verdict. Small claims verdicts are only appealable for the defendant, who can then appeal to a civil court with an attorney anyway, so you lose all that time and money for what?

[wetibbe]

When I filed a small claim against an employer the TV stations contacted me asking if I would like to have my case heard on TV. I declined. Maybe you should have contacted Judge Judy Sheindlin. I have mixed feelings about her. Sometimes she makes reasonable judgments and sometimes she rules with "social justice". She can be inconsistent. Our Judicial system is seriously broken.

On the matter of the police chief's comments, he won't detain illegal drivers, as I posted several times, the Federal Customs and Immigration laws have a "citizens recourse" provision with treble damages. A good class action suit against him would be interesting. Of course no-one wants to pay for it !.

With any kind of luck we will have a house cleaning in November and a new President. There should be lots of relief when the present "junk" is swept out.

I'm an old timer that has been around for a long time. I have never seen a regime that was so corrupt, arrogant and blatant. They are in a hole. Just let them keep digging.

[Greg in LA]

Thanks for the imput and the reply everyone.
Ayatolla, What you said about small claims court." A throwback to the king's common law courts". Is so true.
I am a newbie at suing someone, it was my first time... and what an eye opener it was.
I got the verdict today, $385.00 judgement against the landlord. The scumbag management company Southern California Realestate management was dismissed. Frankly I feel victorious!
It was half of what they with held from my deposite, but after the way I saw the laws totally disregarded I am suprised that I got anything.

I couldn't take it to a higher court, I called a few lawyers, they were not interested because the it money involved was too small.
I met the owner of the Management company, he was the defendant. I swear I think that guy probably lives in small claims court. He was a total pro at it, probably because half of all of his tenants sue him to get back their deposits.

[Ayatollahgondola]

Originally Posted by Greg in LA

Thanks for the imput and the reply everyone.
Ayatolla, What you said about small claims court." A throwback to the king's common law courts". Is so true.
I am a newbie at suing someone, it was my first time... and what an eye opener it was.
I got the verdict today, $385.00 judgement against the landlord. The scumbag management company Southern California Realestate management was dismissed. Frankly I feel victorious!
It was half of what they with held from my deposite, but after the way I saw the laws totally disregarded I am suprised that I got anything.

I couldn't take it to a higher court, I called a few lawyers, they were not interested because the it money involved was too small.
I met the owner of the Management company, he was the defendant. I swear I think that guy probably lives in small claims court. He was a total pro at it, probably because half of all of his tenants sue him to get back their deposits.

Getting half is a very common award in SC cases. The king solomon decision is applied very, very often.
If you go to court again, make sure you run a search on your opposition to see if they've used the court system often. I recommond it because you can often prepare yourself for the tricks of your competition. It's a public record, and one of the few benefits to being an associate at SOS is you can get some free tutoring on the record search through our affiliated website:
http://publicdocumentdistributors.com/forums/

[Greg in LA]

Great!!!
I am so glad for the information. Now I have to see how to collect the money from the landlord. Maybe it can help me.

One interesting and refreshing thing that I saw while in court was that there was no paid translators there. Any person who needed English translation had to bring there own translator. I don't know if that is new, but I am glad to see it.