Eviction judgment

[J D]

Need your experience to guide my decision, please.

The short: two tenants, man and woman, several complaints including police reports, damage to apartment, non-payment of rent. I went through the eviction process through the district magistrate, got a judgment for $3990 for damages and unpaid rent. One tenant filed an appeal giving me 20 days to file a complaint, which would take this to civil court. Bottom line is that I'm trying to balance my hurt pride with my business decisions. My lawyer is erring on the side of just dropping the whole thing because in the end my legal costs if it made it to arbitration hearing would be $1500 bucks or so.

Do you guys have any experience or advice in this matter. thanks so much.

[Michael Rossi]

I don't know why they call this the "justice system", BECAUSE THERE IS NONE! At any rate, I would drop it unless these are big dollar tenants (meaning they have jobs that they absolutely can not leave).

I thought I had one of these on one of my recent evictions. I also won a judgment (about $2,500 total as I recall). I proceeded with the civil action because the tenant was THE MANAGER at a major retail chain. I thought that surely she wouldn't quit that job. WRONG! Before I could even file the paperwork to garnish her wages, she quit her job and moved out of state. UGH!

The bottom line is that I've got several judgments and have yet to collect a single penny!

Mike