A lone attorney sat in the Brighton courtroom last July. The clerk magistrate — like a judge in small claims court — called a handful of cases, one after another.
Resident after resident was called to defend themselves against claims ranging from several hundred to several thousand dollars in debt. Few showed up. Nearly all cases resulted in a court-ordered judgment that they had to pay the sum.
But what stood out was that the assistant clerk magistrate seemed frustrated. The lawyer didn’t have the right documents…