Is it true that if you respond to a collection notice they can take you to court?

Question

My boyfriend reciently recevied a notice in the mail saying that a ballys bill of 5,000 dollors was recently sent to a collection agency. it started about 5 years ago when he went there to pay his bill, he lost the recipt, they then accused him of not paying and he had no proof that he did. So he never went back. He refuses to pay the debt b/c he said it wasnt his fault and his dad says that if he tries to contact them about it they can take him to court and make him pay. is this true can we find out what happend without being forced to pay

Answer 1

Any contact you make may be held accountable in court. Really you can't run from it, but normally in 7-10 years things are deleted from the credit reporting agency. That's 7-10 after they are in collections.

Answer 2

I would contact a legal person on that question. There are so many laws about that kind of thing. I think in general most credit debts are supposed to drop them after so many years, but i have not had a chance to try it. if it has anything to do with government loans forget it, you will have to pay. i would try to do what I told the last guy. call and offer a settlement in full for maybe half the money and make sure they send you a notification that they have agreed to do this, i have done it many times when we had to get our credit cleared up. and also, check your trw often. There are usually a lot of errors on it and even more so once you have had any kind of credit problem.

Answer 3

and how can they collect a civil judgment?
most states don't collect judgments and this mess is 5 years old.
I would not consider paying it now.