There are certain charges that I put on that I know for a fact the judge will take off of the amount owed if the tenant shows up, an example, the cost to replace severely burnt drip pans on the stove.

If the tenant doesn’t show up, of course I get my default. However, when the tenant does show up, the judge will ALWAYS award me less than what I had plead. Once I stripped all of this fluff out and only charged for that money that was important to me… and they still took stuff out.

So.. now I keep putting it in so that the judge has something to take out to make the tenant feel a little better.

This may be the wrong way to look at things.. but collections is often a game, and the better player tends to win more often than not… and putting in things for the judge to take out, at least in my jurisdiction – all part of the game.