The Rochester City Court Landlord/Tenant docket is a busy one.  With a limited number of evictions heard per day the court is in session, it becomes even more important to get it right the first time!  While this is far from an exhaustive list, here are three tips that can make your first trip into Landlord/Tenant Court your last:

1. Make sure the Petitioner is the property owner.  This might sound like common sense, but it becomes difficult if you forget, for instance, that you moved a property into an LLC, or if you have recently done other transfers as part of estate planning.

2. Make sure that your lease allows you to recover attorney's fees: if your written lease doesn't allow for attorney's fees, you won't get them. Remember, "attorney's fees" are different than "expenses" and "fees"; be precise!

3. Work together with your process server to try to ensure personal service.  While you may be entitle to a monetary judgment for unpaid rent, expenses, and attorney's fees, you won't get anything without personal service.