Balley鈥檚 Fitness Club unnoticed collection of account?

In aug06 my mom went to Balley鈥檚 Fitness Club to upgrade her account.She ASKED to ADD 2 people on to HER acct.A guy said that he would add us onto her acct and update our address (we moved) but later. He gave us papers with our old address, which had our NEW phone # from our new address, we signed it keeping in mind that he just added two of us unto my mom鈥檚 account. After 6mon we tried to refinance our house and we found out that Balley gave our acc to collection. It happened because my mother forgot her card at Balley (they didn鈥檛 called us) which later she cancelled. Problem is that my mom wrote the card # on the portion of the agreement which connects that card to the mon pay. She didn鈥檛 read agreement closely because she had in mind the idea that we will be ADDED to her acc, it was what we asked for, and he agreed with us(but they OPENED a NEW one). During 6months NO legal notice or phone call about going to collection. $2500 was paid upfront. I want to go to small claims court.

I wanted to ask how should I prepare? Should i ask to refund my money? I wanted to ask to give me more, because my mother was serious ill due to the stress. How much should I ask for so the judge could agree?

I live in California in Bay Area (near San Francisco)

Thank you for your help!

If you go to small claims court, you cannot get anything extra for stress. You are limited to what you actually lost.