Being Sued for Lost Laptop

I'm not seeing the relevance of the tax issue to the matter at hand, but no, I didn't declare a thing. No contractor that is paid in cash does, unless he's an idiot. So yes, I committed tax fraud on a few grand.

Yep, planned to tell the truth in court. I read the FAQs on the court website. There are no documents to bring and there is no evidence. I filed an answer to the claim last night online and stated that there was no rental agreement and the iPad was lost during work.

One question I have is do judges usually decide one way or the other in full, or do they routinely make adjustments to the claim amount? He is asking for more than the cost of a used iPad, or a new one for that matter.

Perhaps the idiotic thing to do would be committing tax fraud.

In a case like this I see no reason why the judge would try to split the baby. You're either liable or you're not.

If you want to present evidence as to value, by all means present evidence. If you choose not to challenge his figures, the judge won't have anything else to go on.