SERVED!

As promised in Blog #1, I went to the courthouse last week and filed a civil claim in Small Claims Court against a woman who hired me to produce a song and subsequently disappeared. Having lived in Los Angeles for 9 of the past 10 years, I had envisioned the small claims process as a bureaucratic nightmare. (Dealing with the California DMV almost turned me into a bonafide anarchist). In truth, it was pretty simple...

The toughest part was making it through the formidable metal detectors and past the security checkpoint at the courthouse. Here in Nashville, we take our homeland security seriously. I've flown a whole lot in the last several years, so I'm pretty familiar with the security screening process. That doesn't mean that I've been mistake-free. In fact, I've accidentally made it on to planes with a pocket knife in my backpack several times. Also, being a musician, I usually have wires and strange looking metal boxes in my backpack, but I've never been hassled about that stuff. At the Nashville courthouse, however, they searched my bag and searched my bag, and searched it some more until they found a dangerous-looking nail clipper. It was one of those nail clippers with the little fold-out file. I was politely informed that if I wanted to keep the clipper I had to break off the file, which I did. Secure in the knowledge that I wouldn't be filed to death while in the courthouse I trooped on up the the second floor where the civil claims office is.

Considering the fact that I was bringing a lawsuit against a fellow US citizen the form I had to fill out was amazingly simple. All that was required was my name and address, the name and address of the person against whom I am bringing suit, and a brief description of why I'm suing in the first place. There was no line, and after paying a court fee of $102.75 I was out of there.

The next step was for the sherrif's office to serve notice to this woman that she was being sued. I has been over 3 months since I completed the work on the song that she hired me for. I have called and texted countless times and twice I even drove by her house to see if I could talk to her face to face. She was nowhere to be found. Naturally I left feeling skeptical about the ability of anyone to find her and to serve notice that she was being sued. But in a surprise move that helped to restore my faith in our law enforcement system, the sherrif's office found her. The she-weasel has been served!

Court date is currently set for March 2nd at 8:45am. I'll let you all know how it goes...