[CA - TENANT] Increase Amount for Appeal after Winning Security Deposit in Small Claims?
[US-CA]
Hi All—
This is *mostly* hypothetical, but I'm curious about this situation. The basic gist was landlord didn't complete the walk through and didn't even respond about the security deposit until Day 29 (it's 21 days in Los Angeles), where she provided a sketchy list that didn't even list amounts. We went to small claims and won.
We originally pushed for bad faith (which would triple the amount) but didn't get it. But there were a few things we should have gotten—the demand letter via certified mail and the process server weren't included in our final amount. Those were small so fine whatever.
But here's where things get complicated. We submitted our evidence via the digital evidence system, but when we got there the judge was ancient and had no idea how to use it. Meanwhile, the landlord had not submitted the evidence in advance and simply handed it to us 5 minutes before the hearing. Only after did we realize how she did so much worse in her evidence—included tons of receipts for things outside the apartment (like fence repair and the washer/dryer in her illegal ADU), and included additional items that she hadn't texted about (for example, she included a repair of jacuzzi jets that were part of our shower that she told us on Day 1 of moving in never worked). Had we been able to review the evidence we would have stated this for the record and wasn't part of our testimony.
We did win, and my sense is the judge simply decided "21 days is 21 days" and did not review our evidence. However, I have a feeling the landlord may appeal. So here's my question: during or *at* the appeal can I request the "bad faith" claim? Or can I only defend the originally received amount? Hopefully she just sends us the money, but I can't help but be curious!