[flaurieda]

While My son was at NationalGuard training,his "partner"on their cellphone contract ended the contract three weeks before the 2 year contract expired. She's being forced to pay the early-termination fee but is threatening to take my son to small claims court .Can she do that?The phone co. says that since SHE had the authority to change it+did than she's the one responsible for it.what is the minimum amt a person can take another to court for?

[Fr_Chuck]

Joint account, she can go after 1/2 of the fee's.

[Justice Matters]

Either party to the contract would sue the other for costs incurred by one but owing by the other.

If your son is sued he may want to plead that the plaintiff knowingly created and assumed these costs.

In the alternative, he could argue the plaintiff failed to mitigate her damages by seeing the contract through to its end. (Ie. It would have been cheaper for her to pay for three more weeks of service than terminate the contract early and as such your son should only be responsible for half of the costs of three weeks worth of service.)

While we are unaware of any minimum in any small claims court the courts do no like to be bothered with very small matters (ie. Those under $50 for example). It is even possible to have a case dismissed if it is truly trivial and the time, costs and court resources involved far exceed the value of any claim (ie. A claim for 25 cents would be worth less than the paper it was printed on).