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."
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.
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).
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...