But when you don't answer questions asked to try and HELP you, well then you don't get the help you are asking for. We can't read minds. Being in L.A. proper, is the place under rent control ordinance or not? I am not far from L.A. though NOT under rent control and while it sometimes takes a while, you CAN screen and find decent tenants, even for low income properties such as the ones I own.
You asked about your chances to sue an out of state tenant. But in THIS thread (I'm not a mind reader so didn't know to read some other thread for the "real" info which yes DOES affect the answers given) you initially mentioned NOTHING about a subleaser. I am trying to help you and make you see that your suit may not hold up in court against original tenant as well as you think it will. And the sublease COULD come up and all that goes with it. You accepting rent FROM the subleasee makes that person YOUR tenant by implied tenancy. I'm trying to help you see that. You don't want to use a paralegal or regular attorney to help you with matters like this, you want to use a LL EVICTION law firm, one that JUST specializes in representing LL's for usually a FIXED FEE. In L.A. you have a much higher risk for losing cases than winning them as it's the most ANTI LL courts in the state. That said, since this is related to LL/Tenant matter/small claims tied to a property in CA, you may wish to recheck that ability to sue in Nevada. And even if you can, you do know you will NOT be able to recover necessary travel costs to go there and do so and appear, etc. AND in small claims court you cannot have an attorney represent you more than likely (most states including CA).
I also TRIED to help you understand that posting bits and pieces only hurts YOU and at times wastes the time of valueable contributors here as they can't advise when they don't have the facts. And we sure can't read minds.
I'm glad you SAY you learned from this..but in some statements you made, I'm not as sure. I hope you did.
You say only answer THE question you ask now but it's ALL interrelated. I've tried but not sure any of it will help as it was in response to different "scenarios" as the thread here grew and I still don't even know about the "other thread".
Sorry I do my best to HELP those who post here but only if they are willing to HELP me do so by posting the FACTS all in one place, answering further questions I may have to try and clarify things, etc.
Again..you don't want/need a paralegal/attorney just general practice or real estate, you need to work with a local LL eviction firm who FYI will do evictions for about $150 uncontested plus costs, a couple hundred more for contested and can also help with money judgments, etc. BUT your plan to do out of state small claims...not gonna be able to utilize them. THAT is why I was trying to help you understand what went wrong...as you missed out on the "real" opportunity and in fact made the situation much worse by allowing your tenant to sublet but then YOU accepted rent from the sublease tenant which THEN makes a DIRECT relationship with YOU and that person.
Using anyone BUT a SPECIALTY law firm that only represents LL's in evictions, etc. might actually hurt you because suprisingly MOST CA lawyers do not even KNOW LL/Tenant law and CERTAINLY not L.A. rent control ordinance restrictions law let alone general CA state LL/Tenant law.