Anyone familiar w/Small Claims in TX?

[whtgt02vert]

Would love to get some input from people familiar with small claims in TX. Ex-fiancee is taking me to small claims, $ related. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Want to get as much info here before setting up a meeting with a lawyer. She's already retained a lawyer FYI.

 

[oldmodman]

No advice, since I am in California and we cannot have a lawyer in small claim court.
Here, you are on your own.

 

[SNCBOOM]

Seems weird that someone would pay for an attorney for small claims court. That would probably cost nearly as much as she's trying to get.

 

[kook911]

Been to small claims twice. Never was the defendant though. What questions are you looking for? Hiring a lawyer for small claims is a little weird bc small claims is for less then 5k. It pretty much goes like this, both of you go into court, she tells her story. After she is done you can ask questions about her story. Then you tell your story. She asks questions... Then the judge decides who wins. You can appeal if you lose.

 

[CobraBob]

How much money is she claiming you owe her?

 

[whtgt02vert]

Been to small claims twice. Never was the defendant though. What questions are you looking for? Hiring a lawyer for small claims is a little weird bc small claims is for less then 5k. It pretty much goes like this, both of you go into court, she tells her story. After she is done you can ask questions about her story. Then you tell your story. She asks questions... Then the judge decides who wins. You can appeal if you lose.

How much money is she claiming you owe her?

I already received a letter from her lawyer stating that I had 30 days to pay her back($6k includes lawyer fees) or else be taken to small claims court. While she did GIVE me money, I used that money to get an apartment for the both of us, she was still living away at the time but she commuted every other weekend up to stay with me. I cashed the check she wrote me in Nov 2010 and no more than a month later I borrowed $5k from a family friend for which I wrote a contract for, 5k for 1 year at 4% interest. She was completely aware that I wrote a contract for the money I borrowed from my family friend and I asked her if she wanted me to use the same contract for us. Nope, nothing, she said not to worry about it.

Fast forward to June/July this year she ends our relationship since she was seeing someone else and now I get this letter in the mail. Problem is, she states I owe her a balance of 4600 but what she failed to tell her lawyer is that what I "owed" her didnt take into account the 4100 I had to "gift"(mortgage company told me to gift it to her since the house was in her name and couldnt have that loan outstanding before applying for a mortgage) her.

My question is since she has nothing set in stone or written in paper, what can she really do? I have a feeling that the money I "gifted" to her will not cover the "balance" I allegedly owe her. I have no contact with her, I cancelled her cell since it was under my name, so no new cell number, she changed her email address, and has told her lawyer that I was harrassing her on FB and emails, which I can prove that I wasnt and was only contacting her to try and get my things.