I'm in Michigan. Long story short, I paid a guy to remodel my kitchen, he demolished my kitchen and it was excuse after excuse about putting it back together and finally after a month since I hired him I fired him, but I already paid about $6k, he said he'd give it back, but has not. We did sign a contract.

First question, what will happen if he doesn't sign for the letter the court sends? Will I still get a court date? I only have a po box address for him, but it shouldn't be hard to find a home address if I need to.

For my evidence I'll have pictures, a quote from the new contractor, a statement from the new contractor, my bank statements showing that he was paid by check, phone call logs. I'm working on writing a time line of our interactions mostly for me so I don't forget anything, should I make a copy for the judge? Should I print put all of our text exchanges? Would it be beneficial to try and find stories from other people that have been effected by him? Is there anything else I should bring or do?

I'm going to file the claim on Thursday, I told the guy he has until then to pay me back, which I don't think he will.