Tenant is taking me to Small Claims Court - Help

[Bruce L.]

So, my tenant serve me with paperwork that he wants me take me to small claims court over his $1200 security deposit, after all repairs were made, I gave him back $250, but he wanted pretty much all of it.

Could anyone tell me what to expect as I have never gone to small claims court before?

One thing that I'm concern is that I have the tenant the move-in inspection checklist and instead of having him sign the original with ink, I had him fax it to me. Not sure if that matter or not since he could just write all over it after he moved out, stating an item was already broken and basically lying in court.

I do have documentation and pictures as well and kept a pretty good log as to what happened.

Any information I could get would be greatly appreciated.