It will NOT be in the Small Claims Court

Thanks for your advise. The property management company asked us for $8,500, way above the Small Claims Court uppper limit in NYS, therefore, this case will NOT be dealed in small claims court. We will go to civil court to handle this case, where we can ask the civil court judge to consider the property manager's discrimination against us. Now the question is, should we sue the property manager first for discrimination or we just wait until we are sued by the property management company's lawyer?