How to recover damages from my last tenant

[Ashley Chris]

My last tenant trashed the house and left me with $3000 in damages (after deducting $1000 deposit, I am on hook for $2000). I am running out of ideas to recover this $2000 from her

a) Retaining a lawyer starts from $3500, so it is ruled out

b) I am out of state landlord, so I dont know if it is practical to approach small/petty claims court. 

c) Some one tells me I can directly go to collections, but I donot know where it takes me to.

At the least, I want this issue to appear in her rental records, credit records (and possibly court records), so that she would not go scott-free

What are my options in a) trying to recover the damages and b) reporting the tenant  to credit/rental/etc bureaus.