Pro Se Plaintiff in Small Claims Court Needs Advice, Help or Information Please! (2014)

[dbenjamind]

I am the plaintiff in a small claims case where I am suing two separate individuals who failed to pay me for the work completed per contract agreement. They just happen to be husband and wife but had two separate contracts because they each wanted work done on the property that only they owned (contract for husband's roof and contact for wife's roof). The defendants chose to hire an attorney and I am representing myself. I filed the claim back in January of 2014 and have become a mini expert in small claims court rules and procedures. However, I am a novice and do not know all there is to know regarding my rights and I am 100% certain that the defendants attorney has purposely failed to notify me of upcoming hearing dates relating to the motions that he has filed on behalf of the defendants. This is only a quarter of the BS that has gone on in this case since filing but my main concern is this:
The defense attorney failed to notify me of actions taken since February of 2014 and I can prove that he mailed documents to the wrong address after being provided with proper notification of my new address (I was having all my mail forwarded to my new address anyway but still never received one piece of mail from the defense attorney). The proof I have was actually found in the court file (which is located in the judges chambers). I had to request my file so that I could figure out why I was not being notified of hearings being set. This last failure to notify me was a motion to order default judgement in favor of the defendants! I would have never known about this hearing date had I not called the court house for general information about my case.
I would like to know what I can do about this. I have court coming up very soon and need to know if I can win by default on the grounds that the defendants attorney has failed to properly notify the other party (me)? If not, then what are the steps I should take next?

Thanks!
D.

[Colorado Rambler]

Rules of Civil Procedure from the Colorado Supreme Court.

I would suggest that at the very least, you hire a para-legal. As far as I'm aware, the Colorado Forum has no members who are attornies, and we cannot advise you on this matter.

[2bindenver]

I'd hire an attorney.

[dbenjamind]

Thanks for your replies.. Had court this morning and the judge dismissed the defenses motion for default after I explained that the attorney was mailing the notices to the wrong address since February of last year, and did so even though I had filed a change of address with the court back in March of 2014. The defense attorney is a jerk, plain and simple.. He maintained that he mailed the notices to the "last known address on record", which was the old address. The long and short of it is that this guy is allowed to get away with not following court procedure and I end up getting scolded for not providing a current address. All the while, proof that I did file a proper change of address is in the court file and is laying on the judges bench. I brought this to the judges attention and he flipped out on me, almost holding me in contempt of court for being disrespectful..?? Really..
In the end the judge ordered us to arbitration to have the dispute settled. This is a whole other ball game for me and I have no clue what to do next. I agree with the suggestion to hire an attorney but I do not think I can afford one right now. The paralegal sounds like a less expensive option but I plan to look into both. All I do know at this moment is that it sure feels like I am getting the short end of the stick here simply because I am Pro Se.
Thanks!