Blaustein said he felt SCAS had "strong support" for the two bills from their co-sponsor, Sen. Jacques.

But he said many of the bills' opponents in the Legislature are concerned about the bills' strengthened measures for collecting judgments from deadbeat defendants.

Specifically, he said Senate minority Republicans objected to a provision not to renew a liable defendant's driver's license if he fails to pay his claim.

This would mean that a defendant could be imprisoned for driving without a license-effectively "raising a small claims judgment to a criminal level," Blaustein said.

Blaustein added, however, that he felt SCAS had satisfied this objection by using the driver's license punishment only for people the court deemed able to pay.

The current bills would also raise Massachusetts' small claims dollar limit from $2,000-its current level-to $2,500. In 1981 SCAS fought successfully to raise that limit from $750 to $1,250.

Blaustein said he felt the importance of streamlining the state's small claims system, which handles some 100,000 cases per year, is anything but small-even though the cases themselves are not large.