We received a summons saying that we were being sued. We went to the
mediation and refuse to pay because we were falsely accused, so
therefore the next step was to go to court. We received paperwork
indicating that we had a default judgement against us and that we
missed our court date, but the ironic thing is that we did not receive
anythin in the mail. The clerks claim that they mailed it out 3 weeks
prior. They are saying to appeal this case it would cost $4,800, but
the person sueing us is asking for $2,000. My feeling is that we
shouldn't have to pay anything because the court can see where we had
made several attempts to the courthouse trying to make sure we didn't
miss the mediation date, plus attended the mediation and then
mentioned we would wait on the court date, but we never receive any
mail. This was a win win situation on our part because there was no
evidence because we are inocent. Why would we miss our court date if
we knew we were going to win. Now we are being sued for $2,000. How do
we handle this?  We do have a lawyer, but she was surprise of what
they are asking for $4,800 and do not feel good about this. This is a
small court claim in the Ft. Bend County of Texas.  We need answers
quickly we have two days left to file.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 11 Oct 2006 17:51 PDT

Ask the clerk how the notices are mailed.

It is not unusual for courts to mail such notices in a way that
requires a signature upon receipt.  If that's the case -- and if the
clerk doesn't have a signed receipt -- perhaps they can be convinced
to re-open the case.

Best of luck.

pafalafa-ga

Why don't you ask your lawyer? If you don't think you have a good one,
get a different one.

I didn't know SMALL CLAIM judgements were apeallable!  I had thought
you could only ask the same court to set aside its own judgement and
re-hear the case.  Maybe, I was wrong.  Goodluck all the same.