I am being sued in RI small claims court for something I purchased through paypal from an RI seller & never received. I live in Fl, what do I do?

It's true that if you don't show up, a judgment will almost certainly be entered against you.  However, assuming the only assets you  have are in Florida, the other party will have to obtain a Florida judgment in order to collect.  At that point, you can defend claiming that the Rhode Island Court had no jurisdiction over you.  There would be two bases for this.  One, I don't know the Rhode Island small claims court's rules, but a small claims court may very well not have jurisdiction over out of state defendants.  Two, even if the small claims court could exercise jurisdiction over some non-residents, you would argue that you do not have sufficient contacts with Rhode Island to allow a Rhode Island court to exercise jurisdiction over you. I caution you - once a Rhode Island judgment has been entered against you, the only defense  you will have against it is if there was no jurisdiction.  If the Florida court holds that Rhode Island did have jurisdiction over you, the judgment will stand - you will not be able to argue the merits.  It is only if the Florida court holds that there was no jurisdiction that you will be able to defend on the merits.  It is possible that conducting this business transaction with a Rhode Island resident which is the basis of the claim against you will be considered sufficient contact with Rhode Island to provide a basis for jurisdiction. As a practical matter, I think it unlikely that the other party will spend the money to start a case against you in Florida just to try to collect $475.  However, entry of a judgment against you may still have a negative impact on your credit history. Although non-lawyers normally can't represent anyone other than themselves in Court, some small claims courts allow it.  I assume you don't want to pay a Rhode Island attorney, but if you have a friend or relative in Rhode Island who can represent you, you may want to check the website for the Rhode Island court, or call the clerk of the court, to see if that friend or relative can represent you in this small claims case.