[tony101]

In some states, companies have to send a regular employee to small claims court.

For example, in California, "a corporation may appear and participate in a small claims action only through a regular employee, or a duly appointed or elected officer or director, who is employed, appointed, or elected for purposes other than solely representing the corporation in small claims court."

http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection...

[vkou]

My naive reading of this leads me to believe that they can send a lawyer who is primarily employed for... A million and one other purposes. (M&A, non-small-claims-court litigation, contract law, etc.)

What they can't do is send a lawyer employee whose sole job is small-claims-court litigation.

[tzs]

The section the poster above you referenced also includes this:

> (m) Nothing in this section shall operate or be construed to authorize an attorney to participate in a small claims action except as expressly provided in Section 116.530.

Here is the relevant part of section 116.530 [1]:

> (a) Except as permitted by this section, no attorney may take part in the conduct or defense of a small claims action.

> (b) Subdivision (a) does not apply if the attorney is appearing to maintain or defend an action in any of the following capacities:

> (1) By or against himself or herself.

> (2) By or against a partnership in which he or she is a general partner and in which all the partners are attorneys.

> (3) By or against a professional corporation of which he or she is an officer or director and of which all other officers and directors are attorneys.

So...it looks like for a corporation that is not a professional corporation, they cannot send an attorney even if that attorney is a regular employee.

That does raise an interesting question. What happens if a corporation is not a professional corporation, but every officer, director, and employee is an attorney? They would not fall under the 116.530(b) exception, and so would seem to all be excluded uner 116.540(m).

[1] http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection...