My question involves small claims court in the state of: New York, Nassau County.
Had a tag sale and and sold a heavy item (palyground set) that required the plaintiff to remove it from property. Plaintiff said her brother had a pick up truck so the problem was solved, or so we thought. A month later, plaintiff came but we had to refuse the sale because she came late in the evening and did not come with proper lights or tools. Oral agreement was that she pick up item in a few days and that plaintiff was responsible for removing it which she agreed to. Ultimately, plaintiff sued us (we are the defendant) for many things but judge through out all amounts except a truck rental bill. At the small claim's trial, plaintiff provided this bill for a truck rental which did not have a sales tax and no proof of payment. She told the judge she paid in cash. We lost the case, am required to pay the rental fee and are appealing the bill because, indeed, the plaintiff arrived with a pick up truck owned by her brother and not a van as indicated on bill.
Please also note the rental bill was not from a commercial agency like U Haul but was in fact, from her family's business.
1) We are soon to receive a transcript which is approx. 20 minutes in length.
We did not have an opportunity to respond to the plaintiff's alleged lies stated at the small claim's trial. Can the appeal process reverse this purely on the fact that we did not have a chance for rebuttal?
2) When we receive the transcript, how are we to write our objections or corrections? The clerk from Nassau County said we are to only check over for grammatical errors. Yet, where do we make our objections and corrections of the context of the transcript. Is that saved for the brief on the appeals level or do we make these objections/corrections along with grammatical corrections? We know a copy of the transcript needs to be mailed to the plaintiff by us within 15 days. Do we send her the original transcript we receive or do we send a copy of our objections/corrections?
3) We can not figure out the legal ruling whereby the judge allowed this ruling in favor of the plaintiff? Were we not within our rights to end a contractual agreement due to safety reasons because she attempted to take apart the heavy item in the dark? Also, this was a tag sale where it was the plaintiff's responsibility to remove the item? First, this was definately a fradulent van rental bill and second, why would we ever have to pay for any of her expenses? We're baffled with this final decision.
4) What is the appeal process in terms of time nad process? We are going to have to write a brief but we do not never wrote one before? Are there specific lawyers who just write briefs for small claim cases and if so, how much does a brief typically cost?

