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Hi. I'm Indiana personal injury attorney David Holub. This video discusses whether some cases might more rightly be handled in small claims court, even where a serious or reckless disregard of safety has resulted in some injury. So let's say your a victim of another person's negligence. They've done something reckless and careless, and you have suffered an injury. You're the victim of another person's clear carelessness, but you luckily did not suffer serious injury. You're mad and you want to make sure others do not get hurt, so you contact an attorney. The attorney listens to your story, but says, "You likely have a case, but it's probably too small to pursue." What does this mean? The court system is broken down into small claims courts and then courts of general jurisdiction. Small claims courts obviously involve small claims, and those are claims that have a value of less than $10,000, in most cases. And then courts of general jurisdiction, where there is no limit to the amount that can be recovered based on the damages and the injuries that occurred. In small claims courts, you don't need an attorney. The filing fee is smaller, and the rules of evidence are not enforced. These courts are set-up to allow people to pursue claims without the assistance of an attorney. Think of a small claims court like those television shows where there is a television judge, and two parties appear and state what their evidence is, and the judge makes a decision. So if in contacting an attorney, the attorney tells you that there may be a sound legal basis for you to pursue your claim, but that the injury is very small and that you don't need an attorney. It doesn't mean you should just simply drop pursuit of the claim, but you should consider a small claims court. Often attorneys recommend small claims court because they do not want a person to forfeit their right to pursue an action just because it's small. Sometimes pursuing even small claims help make people behave more safely in the future and prevent other people from being injured in a similar way. A good example of a small claims court might be where you're shopping and you slip and fall, and the manager comes out and says, "It's all our fault. We knew that this was a danger, but we just didn't put out any warning signs in time." However, most all that was hurt was your pride, and you get up and you just shake yourself off, and maybe have a little discomfort, but in a day or two, you're just fine. Having a bruised ego and being a little bit sore is certainly an injury, and it's not something to take lightly. But to pursue the matter in court, can be costly and expensive and it may simply be beneficial for you to pursue it in a small claims court rather than a general jurisdictional court. While people should not unnecessarily file litigation, we often encourage people to pursue a small claims case where we know the conduct was serious.