You are here:

Collections Law/Collection agency asking daughter for payment of mother's debt...

Advertisement

Expert: Creditwrench - 10/20/2010


Question
I live in Texas and am 23 years old. Will try to write this efficiently...My mother took me for a hospital emergency visit in 2003 when I was about 15-16 (a minor). She never paid the bill. A few days ago, I received a call from CBCS collections agency. They tell me that her debt has transferred over to ME even though I had no joint accounts with my mother at the time (how could I? I was a minor at the time). Is it legal for them to collect that debt from ME? What can I do? I have yet to find out if they have sent it to my credit report and am worried! Please advise and Thank you,
Crystal

Answer
Demand that they validate the debt just for starters. Don't worry too much about it because the statute of limitations on debt in Texas is 4 years. They can try to collect and they can try to take you to court but if they do that then you should probably think about filing a motion to dismiss their case for being outside the statute of limitations. You would win easily.  

Collections Law

All Answers

Answers by Expert:

Ask Experts

Volunteer

Creditwrench

Expertise

Debt Collections law, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), federal law, how to properly answer court summons for collection cases, how to prepare federal cases against debt collectors, how to deal with debt collection phone calls.

Experience

I've been an active consumer advocate for more than 40 years and have helped hundreds of people win cases against debt collectors as well as helping them defeat demands for summary judgment lodged against them by banks, debt collectors and defeat mortgage foreclosures and keep their homes.

Education/Credentials
Paralegal courses for the most part.
I have been teaching people how to deal with judgments, mortgage foreclosures and other such problems both on and off the internet for many, many years. I am a Richard Cornforth information provider ever since 2000 and worked with many other organizations and causes since 1980. I was Oklahoma State Chairman for the nationwide drive to defeat the Constitutional Convention which was proposed by various factions within our federal government such as the Council of State Governments and the National Organization of State Governors who were working hard to organize a Constitutional Convention to be held in 1995 for the purpose of rewriting our American Constitution to be more acceptable to the United Nations. I worked with Senator Charles Duke of Colorado and Senator Don Rogers of California and many others across the nation to keep them from getting the number of delegate states required to lawfully hold a Con-Con and we were successful. I have worked with many other legislative issues in Oklahoma and have always been very successful.

©2012 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.