### Preparing Your Case: Documentation and Evidence Collection

Success in small claims court depends heavily on thorough case preparation and comprehensive evidence collection that clearly demonstrates contractor breach and quantifies your damages. Professional case preparation often determines the difference between winning and losing small claims actions.

Contract documentation forms the foundation of contractor small claims cases because written contracts establish clear obligations and performance standards. Organize original contracts, change orders, specifications, and any written communications that define work scope and quality requirements. If no written contract exists, gather any written estimates, email exchanges, or other documents that establish agreement terms.

Payment records provide crucial evidence of money paid to contractors and help establish damages for recovery claims. Collect canceled checks, credit card statements, receipts, and any other payment documentation that shows amounts paid and payment dates. Payment records help demonstrate contractor unjust enrichment when work wasn't completed properly.

Work quality documentation through photographs provides powerful visual evidence of contractor performance problems, incomplete work, or substandard materials. Take comprehensive photos showing defective work, compare them with contract specifications, and organize them chronologically to demonstrate problem progression over time.

Timeline documentation helps establish contractor performance failures and demonstrates how delays or abandonment affected your project. Create detailed timelines showing promised completion dates, actual work performed, communication attempts, and problem identification dates. Timeline evidence helps prove contractor breach of contract terms.

Expert opinions from other contractors, inspectors, or industry professionals provide credible assessments of work quality, code compliance, and correction costs. Written expert opinions carry more weight than your own assessments and help establish objective standards for evaluating contractor performance.

Communication records including emails, text messages, letters, and phone conversation notes provide evidence of contractor promises, excuses, and responses to problem reports. Organize communication chronologically and highlight key admissions, promises, or problematic statements that support your case.

Damage calculations require detailed analysis of correction costs, additional expenses incurred due to contractor problems, and any consequential damages resulting from contractor breach. Obtain written estimates from other contractors for correction work and document all additional costs directly attributable to the original contractor's failures.

Witness preparation involves identifying and organizing testimony from neighbors, suppliers, subcontractors, or others who observed contractor performance problems. Witness testimony provides independent verification of your claims and helps counter contractor defenses or excuses.

Mitigation evidence demonstrates your reasonable efforts to minimize damages by giving contractors opportunities to correct problems, seeking reasonable solutions, and acting promptly when problems became apparent. Mitigation evidence helps establish that damages resulted from contractor failure rather than your unreasonable conduct.

Comparative estimates from other contractors help establish reasonable cost expectations and demonstrate that your damage claims are realistic rather than excessive. Multiple estimates provide credible evidence of fair market value for correction work and help justify damage awards.