Narrator: One of the best things
about staying home from school
as a kid was watching daytime court shows.
My personal favorite? "The People's Court."
Judge Milian is electric,
and the cases are always so ridiculous.
Judge Milian: Where was your cart?
By the watermelons, with you, or where the opening is?
Okay, no, no.
Narrator: But what if I told you that this is not
an actual courtroom?
And when a person loses a case,
they don't even have to pay the settlement.
So what's actually going on?
Court shows have long been a staple of American television,
but they didn't start on TV.
The first court shows popped up in radio's golden age.
The early programs were typically reenactments
of real court cases.
Radio: There's no telling
what would happen to him or his life
if he resists the authorities.
Narrator: But "The People's Court," which began in 1981,
started a whole new era:
arbitration-based reality shows.
Presiding since 2001, Judge Marilyn Milian
is the show's longest serving host
and the first Latina judge
to host a nationally syndicated court show.
Before "The People's Court," Milian
was an assistant state attorney in Florida
and was appointed by Governor Jeb Bush
to the Miami Circuit Court,
working in the criminal division.
Judge Milian: I had a gubernatorial appointment,
and it was a sure thing.
And I had crossed every T and dotted every I
to make sure that I had an upward trajectory
in the judiciary.
And I was giving all that up
if I decided to join what many in the law
see as the frivolity of television.
Of course, now that it's been on the air 20 years,
I'm a genius.
But back then, people were worried
about what it is that was gonna happen in my career.
Narrator: What you see on the show
are real small claims cases.
They're lifted directly out of the courthouse
to be arbitrated by Judge Milian.
David Scott: If you get your case in small claims,
there's one judge,
and there's three or 400 cases that show up
on any given day.
And it's very hard, impossible, for that one judge
to get through those cases,
so they offer you something called binding arbitration.
And that is, you can go to a lawyer,
plead your case to the lawyer
with the person you're suing,
and that lawyer will decide the case.
It's binding arbitration,
there's no room for appeal,
and you have agreed,
and the defendant has agreed to allow
this arbitrator to hear your case.
And that's basically exactly what we do.
Narrator: So how do they pick the cases?
This is like panning for gold.
We go out, and we go to all these courts,
and we get all of these cases,
and we sift through them.
We love a relationship case.
We love where an ex-wife is suing their ex-husband.
We love cases where there's a lot of personal kind of stuff
along with the legal stuff.
So it's the personalities that we're looking for.
We're looking for a good argument,
we're looking for a good defense.
That's how we select our cases.
We shoot to bring the public
the juiciest cases we can get.
They were juicy then, they're juicy now,
and hopefully they'll continue to be juicy.
Narrator: The show covers travel expenses
for the participants
and will pay the settlement if the case
is ruled in your favor.
But for most cases, it's not really about the money.
Judge Milian: We once had a guy who paid $40 to file a case
over a $5 lottery card.
And it was a thing of beauty,
because what it shows you
is that small claims is never about the money.
It's always about the principle.
Narrator: So you've got a case.
How do you get the judge on your side?
Absolutely the biggest mistake people make
is coming unprepared.
If you want a judge to rule against somebody
and believe you, you have to bring evidence.
You can't just show up with your flapping gums.
People will just walk it in there,
they're insulted that you didn't
just take their word for it.
It's insanity.
I think people think that because they believe
their story so much,
all they have to do is come forward and say it,
and everyone else is gonna see it their way.
But when there's two sides involved,
you have to prove what it is you're saying.
A hot dog is a sandwich.
If it's essentially two pieces of bread,
with some kind of meat or salad on the inside,
it's a sandwich.
Next case.