I Won...or did I?

[clcewest]

I filed a small claims against a local store. I had to send the claim to their agent located in another county. The date was scheduled for 12/15/00, their attorney motioned the court for a continuance and was granted. It was rescheduled for 01/09/01. I was there but unfortunately there was no one there to represent the store. I proved my case and was awarded my judgement plus court costs. Today, I received a Motion from a law firm stating they are representing the store and to contact them, after speaking to the lawyer, he said he was filing a motion to dismiss my judgement because the corporation received the notification to appear in court on 01/09/01 and sent the notification to him on 01/11/01.

Now I don't know what I need to do, small claims is suppose to be made simple without lawyers, now I have to be a lawyer to know what I can/can't do....

Help! I'm lost...does anyone know what I can do and what happens now?

I am located in Brevard County in Flordida and can't find any local websites to give me any info....

 

[JETX]

Something is wrong here....

Your post said that the attorney representing the store asked for and received the continuance until 1/9/01, yet they appear to claim they were not aware of that date????

Sounds to me like either the store (or their attorney) screwed up in not notifying the court that they had representation (otherwise the notice would have been sent to the attorney, not the store), or the court screwed up in not sending notice to the attorney.

My suggestion:
File a response with the court challenging their motion. Ask for a hearing. When it is scheduled, show up and show the court that YOU complied with all notices and that the failure of the Defendant was purely theirs. The worst you might have would be to re-present your case.