Part 1 - Our Justice System Severely Lacks Being Just

My young naive days found me sitting in a small claims courtroom with my first experience with one of the local judges in the town I was in. I was 20 years old. A judge who would later be a customer of my ex husband who often failed to pay promptly for the work he had my ex do on his little sports car at his auto shop. The apartment complex I'd moved out of was suing me for what they claimed was unpaid rent and a broken window as they had come under different management and the ones who knew the window was cracked when I moved in were no longer there. They were charging me for rent although I had turned in my thirty day notice correctly. The notice was from the 12th of one month to the 12th of another...thirty days and was in accordance with the California Renter's Rights handbook at the time. Sitting before the judge in the small claims courtroom, I was quite nervous and tense due to the whole "your honor" type of thing. When it came my turn, the judge asked me about what they claimed I owed and ended up cutting me off when I was explaining my side of things. practically cut me off mid-sentence on both charges without my being able to completely tell my side. When I told him I had submitted my 30-day notice from the 12th of one month to the 12th of another, he said that I couldn't do that. When I attempted to quote the rule from the handbook, he cut me off and said it was the rule because he was the judge and said it was! I was in shock and it was all I could do to keep my mouth from hanging wide open in disbelief. He was as nice and respectful as could be to the apartment manager, but rude and disrespectful to me. I lost the case and had to pay, however, because I was furious with the outcome, I said I couldn't afford anything more than $5 per month, which wasn't far from the truth, but I was able to take my sweet time somewhat. That was one of my first experiences with "them vs us" kinda thing somewhat like the occupy movement the 99% vs the 1%.