Old_Crow said:
Just guessing here, but I'd bet she didn't rule in your favor.
True but i would have felt this way even with a win, she is that bad. They paid me enough for being there to cover my loss anyway. But i still feel its a monkey court at best.
I enjoyed the fear factor show but it has gone away, i assume maybe that had something to do with the donkey episode.
Just for those that do not know how these court TV shows get their clients here is how its done. When you file in court against someone (in many states for less than $10,000) this is what happens. The courts are so congested that the court will most likely send you a letter asking you if you would prefer a mediator, and they really stress in the letter that it could take a long time to hear your case, which is an incentive to take the mediator option. They tell you that the mediator will sit down with you and hear both sides of the case and help decide the outcome.
Now the next part is rather fuzzy, im not sure if there is a national list of mediated cases but there has to be some kind of court listing that all the legal shows can tap into. Then those TV shows either call or send you a official looking letter that says that your case has been assigned to them for mediation and gives you the option to reject or approve. Now i know they all get this list because i got several offers at the same time.
I dont know what happens if you reject but i approved the judge judy offer because at the time i felt like since it originated from my local filing that it had to be a real court case even if it was on TV, that was so wrong.
Anyway once you accept they send you a ticket and tell you how things work. They fly you somewhere and put you up for the night, for me it was LA. Then they take you to the show studio the next day, not a court house but a studio. Yes its all TV and you are in an actual studio with the lights and cams in the ceiling, you are told to stand on a certain mark and not to move around.
Anyway, when you get back after the case you get a check in the mail for appearing, i got $250 which was how much i sued for, but then again so did the other person. The lesson here is simple Court is Court and TV is TV, they are NOT interchangable.