ABSTRACT
Courts are the institutions to which societies assign the job of resolving conflicts that people have been unable to settle by talking with each other. One particularly interesting and relatively unanalysed type of conflict is the dispute that occurs in small claims courts. Small claims are a self-contained type of civil court which handles disputes between parties that, whatever the actual content and complexity of the conflict, are channelled into a claim by one person for the other person to pay the first party an amount of money. Small claims courts in the United States came into existence in the early years of the 20th century, their purpose being to “provide citizens from all walks of life with quick, uncomplicated, inexpensive and just resolution of smaller civil disputes” (Ruhnka and Weller, 1978, p.xi). They were part of a broader movement that sought to increase access to and participation in the justice system for ordinary people by providing more informal, less bureaucratic procedures.
