civil claim for money situation, need advice.?

I took a loan from my previous employer for $2,300 in November of 2009, and I left the job in December due to it being commission only. Since then I have picked up a low hourly income job ($13 hr) and I just received a warrant notice for court next month for a debt of $3,000. I obviously don't have the money right now and the employer has done some really wrong things in the past that I have evidence of. So that brings me to my 3 questions:

1: Is that evidence worth bringing to a lawyer to help fight my case somehow?

2: What will they do to me if I don't have the money and can show them that I'm so low on money that my car may be reposessed?

3: Is it worth trying to hire a lawyer for this situation?

This employer broke a few major laws that I can prove, may even get him barred from the association he belongs to. Should I even bother with this information or just let it go and bite the bullet?

I'm not sure how these things work. Any sort of advice would be amazing.