Small Claims Suit to a Tenant in NJ

Hello everyone,

I am seeking some advice on submitting a small claims suit for a tenant that has not been paying Utilities for 12+ months. There are many other issues besides this one for this particular tenant (i.e. paying rent at almost midnight on the 5th every month, not cooperating, not being cleanly and damaging property, etc.). Based on some initial advice from my lawyer, he has advised that it may not be worth pursuing it (outside of small claims) according to NJ laws, since the judge may favor the tenant primarily because not paying for utilities (which are divided among multiple tenants) is not a major offense (legally) if utilities are being shared with other tenants and can not be exactly traced back to their own usage.

Any advice on the what the process would be for doing this or any other helpful advice would be much appreciated!

Best,

TP