STANDING UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS

I went to Superior Court yesterday to defend myself. Rene, the woman who refused to pay the balance she owed on my 1994 Toyota and lost the judgement in Small Claims Court appealed the decision.
She presented as new evidence a fraudulent letter from her daughter asserting that I had offered her the car for $1400.00 (the cost was and still is $3000) and introduced an expert who said that it was easy for me to alter e mails (which I used as my evidence of our agreement)
The case was called for 9 A.M. They moved it to another courtroom with a judge pro-tem and then there was an alarm that forced us to evacuate the entire buildiing, stand outside and return go through security and resume where we left off. My case was not heard until 11:30.
I listened to this woman accuse me of lying, perjure her daughter and attack me on every level as an imept, inadequate, ignorant human being. I was a liar, I cheated, I took advantage of her...Then she told the judge she only wanted to make everything right because we lived in a small town and she had her good name to defend.
I felt helpless and unarmed in the face of the power and determination of her presentation and it suddenly occurred to me: What am I fighting for?
This car sale has taken hours of my time, and I very possibly will not recieve a positive judgement; yet I neither lied, altered the facts nor tried to be devious in my defense. I did nothing but offer a car that listed for over $5,000 to a person I thought was my good friend for $3,000 in an effort to be kind because she only had one car and her husband was forced to take and bring her from work. I won once and now I have to fight again?
Is this how kindness is repaid in our world today?
And so no matter whether I win or lose this case, I have lost. I trusted another human being. I reached out to help her and that help is exploding into rage, anger and false accusations. If I win the case I will have to fight for every penny I retrieve and it is only money I will receive. My trust and faith in human honor is shattered.
My biggest fear is that given the same situation with someone I cared about in need and having the power to alleviate the situation, I would do the same thing. I cannot seem to learn that I am a target and I think that must be because it would never ever occur to me to hurt or deliberately malign someone else. I am beginning to believe that is a terrible weakness in my character.
I feel defenseless in a world where one person's determination can mangle truth, destroy integrity and eat up another's faith in the innate goodness of mankind.