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Reader comment: Recently I came across an old column of yours regarding a sibling squabble. One sibling sought your advice regarding suing the other for reimbursement. I thought your advice was quite sound. I have been in a similar situation, ate my losses and moved on.

I have also been to small claims court twice. Once to recover back rent from a tenant and on another occasion to recover funds paid for goods that were never delivered.

Your readers should also be advised that it is not enough to win a judgment. Aside from the difficulty of squeezing blood from a stone, if the defendant does not appear or post bond, you will have to sue again to attach their wages or their property. Or if they have a job, you’ll have to attach their wages or find property they own to go after that property.

In short, suing and collecting on a judgment is not as easy or as cheap as one might think.

Ilyce and Sam respond: Thanks for writing. We agree with you that litigation is not an easy process. While it may seem like a breeze to sue someone and win your case, that’s usually a setup for an episode on TV. The reality is quite the opposite.

Your observation about small claims court is accurate. We always tell our readers that they need to take a good hard look at their case and the money that will be spent upfront before jumping in and filing a lawsuit. We frequently get letters from readers who believe they have been wronged by sellers. These letters usually deal with undisclosed problems with the homes these readers purchased.

In all of these cases, we advise our readers to look at the situation objectively and determine what the actual damages are and what it might cost them to solve the problem. The next step is to determine whether they have a right to go after the seller. Finally, they have to weigh whether the costs and time involved in suing the seller will be worth it.

You decided twice that it was worth your time to file suit against someone. And, your experiences are helpful. Readers should be aware that even if they win their case in court, they may still have to fight to figure out how to get money from the person they have sued.

Not everyone is honorable and pays up, even after they have lost their case in court. Sometimes, even if people are honorable, they don’t have the cash necessary to pay off a judgment when they have lost a case. As you mentioned, once you win a case, the court grants you a judgment. Once you have that, a defendant can simply pay you to satisfy the judgment.

But in many cases, the defendant may simply ignore the judgment, decide they don’t want to pay up, or realize they may not have any money to pay the plaintiff. Obviously, if a person has no job and no assets, winning a judgment won’t mean much to the plaintiff unless some day the defendant comes into some money and can then pay off the judgment.

Finally, thanks for giving us the opportunity to remind readers that the process of getting the defendant’s money can be costly and time-consuming even after you have won your case.

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(Ilyce Glink is the author of “100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask” (4th Edition). She is also the CEO of Best Money Moves, a financial wellness technology company. Samuel J. Tamkin is a Chicago-based real estate attorney. Contact Ilyce and Sam through her website, ThinkGlink.com.)

©2025 Ilyce R. Glink and Samuel J. Tamkin. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.