What Kind Of Attorney Should I Look For?

I'm so out of my element here. I don't even know where to start.

Here's the background: a few months ago, a cable company was burying fiber optic cable in our yard. We did not hire them or ask for this service. The City gave them permits to dig in our yard, and we had no say in it. In the process of digging, they hit our sewer pipe and essentially shattered it. Our sewer pipe backed up into our basement and we had to hire a company to dig up the pipe and repair it. We also had to replace the carpet in the basement. The plumbers that replaced the pipe took pictures and confirmed without a doubt that the pipe was struck by boring equipment. There are score marks from their boring equipment on the outside of the cast-iron pipe.

No matter how much evidence we provide to the cable company, they REFUSE to reimburse us for the damages. We've submitted claim after claim, appeal after appeal, and finally they told us that we'll have to take them to court if we want to pursue this further.

We're talking at least $14,000 in damages. We DO NOT have the money to pay for that...and we don't think we should since WE didn't break the sewer pipe.

So, we have to take them to court. And I don't even know where to start. What 'kind' of attorney should I seek out? A personal injury attorney? Is this a case of 'civil litigation'?

We're located in Minnesota. I think we're just at the financial threshold for Small Claims Court (which is $15,000). Which puts us into.... what category....? What's a lawsuit over $15,000 called?

How much should we expect to pay an attorney to help us with this? How long will this whole process take?

As much as we don't want to hire an attorney, because finances are already really really tight, we know that the cable company will definitely have attorneys represent them, and we feel like we need to have legal representation if we want to even stand a chance in court against this HUGE corporation.

THANK YOU for any advice, tips, or guidance that you can provide!!