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Can a Judge tell a corporation they MUST have a lawyer for a small claims appeal if that is incorrect?

Business 7 views 3 answers
The small claims appeal section on the courts.ca.gov website says this: "Because this case is in the civil division of the superior court (and NOT in small claims court), you (and the other side) are allowed to bring a lawyer to represent you in the new trial." - Nowhere does it say a corporation MUST have one. - Two weeks later the appeal was heard in front of another judge who stated the lawyer rule as written above. I won 10,000 in small claims and lost in the appeal I believe due to the fact that the deck was stacked against me. It was obvious the corporation did not intend to fight me with an attorney since they showed up that first day without one. If they intended to, fine. But, I believe my rights to a fair trial were violated by that first judge. Do I have any recourse here?

Attorney Answers

3
Mark Hostetter ·
From the question, I see no reason why the judge couldn't follow the general rule that corporations must be represented by counsel in Superior Court, to stop unlicensed law practice, nor how that denied you a fair trial. You may have appeal rights as recourse.
0 upvotes
Michael Doland ·
The appeals from a small court judgement is to the superior court. In superior court a corporation (or LLC) must be represented by an attorney. No deck was stacked against you. If you had posted your question before the appeal in the superior court you would have received that answer.
0 upvotes
Martin Kassman ·
No. You have no recourse. There is no further appeal after a small claims appeal. Theoretically, you could file an extraordinary writ petition in the Court of Appeal, but you'd never get an appellate court to hold that you were prejudiced because the other side had a lawyer, which it was entitled to do.
0 upvotes

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