Can I bring a person to court over a personal loan?

Question

I made a pretty dumb decision and lent a close friend 7000 dollars. I gave her a while to pay it off, well here we are 4-5 months later and she keeps telling me that she is going to pay me and continues to make up excuses. However I did make her go get a notarized letter which states as follows, "Payment to one (John Doe) in the amount of 7,150 dollars from one Miss (Jane Doe) is to be paid no latter then March, 1st 2007. If payment is not received by on or before that date legal action may be taken" And it is signed by her and it has the notary stamp. My question is regardless of how she spend the money which she did pretty foolishly, am I legally entitled to recover my money in a court of law?

Also I don't know if this matters or not, but I live in New York State.

Answer 1

Yes, you have proof that it was a loan (smart) then you can take her to court. Now whether or not you'll get your money is a different story...

Answer 2

Yes; the letter is sufficient evidence of the debt to be legally enforceable. The real problem here is this: suppose that you get a judgment, and a writ of execution; where are the assets that you might attach? If the money has been spent, there may be no useful assets available. You could possibly get a wage garnishment order, but those take a long time to collect.

Answer 3

You can take her to small claims and get a judgment, but if the has no money, you'll be right back where you are.
It appears she has already given you in writing that she owes you, the court would establish no more... so you may just waste your time and the money required for filing the suit. Throwing good money after bad.

Answer 4

Yes you are. Of course it may be like trying to get the proverbial "blood out of a turnip". AND you will most likely lose that "friend".

I went thru something similar several years ago. I lent my best friend $2,000 for a motorcycle in 1992. After 13 years he FINALLY paid me back, but the friendship is long over. Very sad.

Answer 5

Yes, you are. It is a legal contract. You can take her to civil court as most small claims courts have a limit of $2,000.00 Best thing to do is to call your county clerks office and get information specific to your location. It will cost some money to have her served BUT the judge can order her to repay any court costs. If she hasn't paid them by the deadline, she can and likely will go to jail.

Answer 6

Call the People's Court.

Answer 7

Yes you can and if you can provide the legal document to the court of law.

On the other hand, if $7,150 does not cause you financial burden give her a slack. I sure she'll pay you back.
After all, you can always take her to court.

Answer 8

Yes, you can sue her. You were wise to get it in writing. You will have to find out the judgment limit in small claims court. In PA the district justice has a limit of $5,000. Anything over that and we have to hire an attorney and file suit in regular court.

Answer 9

If you want to waste your time going to court, to get a judgement, then going to court, to lien per paychecks then yes. But if you want to collect the money, go to see Louie over there at AAA collection agency and you will probably be getting paid as soon as she can find another "friend" to borrow money from.

Answer 10

sure, small claims court is usually limited to $5000, but you have all the evidence you need to easily win a judgement.

Just goes to show it's not a good idea to loan money. If you want to GIVE money that's fine, but loaning money is bad personal policy.