My ex landlord owes me my security deposit. Originally, he said he had 30 days and it would be to me before then because he was waiting on the last water bill and such. A couple days prior to the 30 days being up, I called him asking what was going on because he didn't have my forwarding address. He said that the check would be out that Monday. I waited 10 days after that time and tried to call him a few times. He basically avoided my phone calls and I did leave hima voicemail saying I would be pressing charges if I didn't hear from him.

To make a long story short, I sued him and his wife for double the security as per nj law in small claims court. He was served papers in a few days with a court date in 30 days. Now that the court date is next week, I received a piece of certified mail from his place of business. I didn't have a chance to pick it up yet, but I believe it is probably my security deposit owed to me in hopes that I'll drop the case. My question is if it is, does my case hold up in court any longer for double? I did pay money to file the case, but what would happen if it is infact the security deposit and I went to court next week anyway...would he have to pay me the other half to make it double or would he just have to pay my filing fees? Or should I not pick up the certified mail and state that I never received the mail. Finally, what happens if he never shows up in court?

If he has proof that he sent out certified mail, and you received notification of the mail being there, (and not picked it up) you have acted just as badly as he has. I would pick it up and take it to court unopened.