If she doesn't show, will a judgement be issued against her automatically?
Then what?
Is some authority going to come knocking on her door?
Will a bank be ordered to garnish any income? Accounts frozen?
What if her pay goes to PayPal or something? Does the court know about it and will they freeze it?
How many court sessions will Tammy have to file? Does she have the stamina to pursue this to the end?
I'm not a lawyer, but I've spent many years court watching.
I also used to review credit reports professionally. Here's how most states' small claims courts work:
Tammie would have to make a claim that small claims court actually covers. That means provable damages and/or a provable debt/loan that the defendant failed to pay as agreed. The standard of proof is "preponderance of the evidence", meaning a 51 percent likelihood that the plaintiff is right.
Winning in small claims court means you get a "judgment" against the defendant, not a court order to do something in particular. This includes default wins (where the defendant fails to show up in court).
The defendant's credit report will show the judgment unless the defendant pays off the debt ASAP into the court registry. If the defendant pays the plaintiff directly, they'll need to get the plaintiff to fail a paper to the court showing the judgment should be listed as satisfied.
The judgment will show up on ALR's credit report as either satisfied (if it's paid) or unpaid for as long as the credit agency shows unpaid judgments. That used to be 7 yrs on the big credit agencies like Experion, but I'm not sure if that's still true. The court isn't in charge of what's on credit reports.
She can't successfully claim generalised damages without showing receipts or something like akin to a blue book value on a car (for example). If she says ALR broke something, she needs to provide something showing what that item would have been worth. If it's a loan, she needs to show SOMETHING that is evidence the money was supposed to be repaid (and wasn't just a gift).
But the standards for evidence aren't particularly high. Think texts, social media posts, proof of prior installment payments going into the plaintiffs bank account, photos of broken shit, witness testimony, police reports, etc, the court will take that into consideration. It's not a murder trial.
If ALR doesn't show up, Tammie will
probably get a default. Lazy judges just rubberstamp them. A
good judge will glance through the file and throw out a "defamation" bullshit case, though.
