AboutChris Ebert Expertise I can answer questions for Texas and California residents concerning issues that involve creditor and debtor rights. Specifically, I can answer questions concerning: FDCPA, FACTA, FCRA, and Texas / California state collections violations.
Experience For the last 6 years I have worked as a Sr. Paralegal in a law firm (http://www.henleycreditlaw.com) that defends debtors against their creditors. I have reviewed thousands of credit reports and under the supervision of our attorney helped hundreds of client resolve their credit issues.
Organizations Henley & Henley, PC
Education/Credentials BBA University of Texas at Austin
I live in Texas and have a problem with a medical doctor (not in Texas) who has sent me a threatening email. The message says to either pay the $900 I owe him for medical consultation or else he'll turn the amount over for collection.
There are several problems with this. First of all, the debt is bogus. It is based on medical advice given to me informally without preconditions over 2 years ago by email. Back them, I also freely offered him advice in my own profession and it was implicitly understood that his advice in return was offered freely. Furthermore, in the intervening 2 years, no bill was sent to me, except for now in the form of a threatening email. Also there was no contract.
Two years ago we were on good term but 1.5 years ago we had a major falling out. The guy has some person grievances against me and is using bogus medical charges to make my life miserable to get back at me.
My questions are:
1. Would a debt collector buy such "debt" that is 2 years old and for which there is no contract?
2. The doctor cannot prove that I agreed to pay for the advice, but he can submit an unjustified bill for collection. Suppose a debt collector buys this "debt" and tries to collect from me. If I challenge this debt through the verification process, would the burden of proof be on the doctor to prove that I owe the debt? How can the debt be verified if there is no signed agreement? On the other hand, I would have a difficult time proving I don’t owe the debt but I can offer some evidence (the emails) to support that it was given informally.
3. This is a relationship gone sour and this doctor is seeking to harass me and make me miserable. In the process he appears to be threatening me with collection of bogus debt and that sounds more like extortion. I simply do not want to pay debt I don't owe. However his threats put my credit rating at risk. Could this individual harm my credit ratings?
4. All I want out of this is to not have my credit ratings harmed. Should I retain legal counsel before any debt collectors get involved?
Also feeling Letterman’s pain,
Patrick
Answer Patrick,
He could send the debt to collections if he wanted. You would most likely have a decent lawsuit to counter him with. The most proactive thing that you can do at this point is to write him a letter stating that this debt he is now threatening to send to collections is over two years old and you have never received a bill. Furthermore, it was your understanding that his services were in trade for yours. Give dates and details as much as possible. Let him know that if he reports your debt to the debt collectors you may seek legal counsel.
I hate to say that since he has not done anything yet there is not much that you can do yet.
