I have a bill but its not all mine, what can I do to protect myself??

I have a phone bill from when I shared an apartment with my roommate. The phone was not in this persons name as he had no money to help get the phone put in as that person didnt make much money then. I now owe 600.00 from one year ago. I made NONE of these calls as I worked graveyard shift then and I dont use the phone much anyway and I never make long distance calls because it is not my habit it do so. Even though the phone WAS in my name only isnt there SOMETHING I can do to help myself? I am VERY HONEST and would never lie about something like this. It is ruining what little credit I have because of this horrible roommate as my roommate AND his friends used my phone without my permission for the long distance calls. I have tried reasoning with the phone company AND trying to make payments all along but they would never accept that from the beginning and they wanted the entire amount paid in full. I am ONLY a working class person and I cant afford to pay out 600 US dollars at once and now I have late fees, aside from that the ENTIRE time the phone company has been VERY rude and belligerent to me and all they do is harass me and calle me bad names FROM THE START!! Isnt that also slander??!! Oh well, I doubt anyone here will help me by responding since NO ONE else has in the past year Ive had this problem, but I thought I would try anyway. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING AND FOR HELPING ME IF YOU CAN WITH SOME LOGICAL ADVICE. Im poor and dont have money to pay anyone which is why I came here. Even in our modern 21st century world it seems you can only get justice if you have the money to get justice done and that is not right. That is denial of my basic human rights also. Im not making any payments until I hear from someone here in the near future so I know what to do.

NO ONE WILL HELP ME WITH THIS PROBLEM and Im getting tired of asking people for advice. Just respond here if you can help me because my email box gets filled EXTREMELY fast due to spam mail.

It looks like you are responsible because the phone and the bills are all in your name. However, if you can prove that the roommates and or his friends used the phone without your permission, you might file a claim for damages in small claims court for the amounts you can prove were incurred without your permission.

[JETX]

Amziah is correct.

Your post said that the phone was in your name, meaning that YOU are responsible for all use of that phone, whether done by you or not.

I assume that this entire $600 bill didn't just happen in one billing, but probably built up over some time. When you first asked for him (the roommate) to pay the bill and he didn't, it was incumbent on you to prevent further charges at that time.

At this point, your only option is to pay the outstanding bill and then consider trying to collect your 'damages' from the ex-roommate. This will very probably require that you consider taking him to small claims court in your state (if you think that he could even pay a judgment).

Sounds like another 'life-lesson' learned the hard way.