10 year old Debt in IL

[theresa77]

So 10 years ago my hubby broke is hand in IL. The claims were submitted to insurance and I believe (its hard to remember 10 years later) that is bill was settled in full to the orthopedic. Fast fordward to the present day, we line in az for 6 years now, Have never never had any other communication from this dr. we have bought and sold homes and it has never been reported to collections nothing. Out of the blue we get a bill saying we owe $1445. The dr is saying that the insurance never paid. I called my bank to see if i could get these cancelled checks, banks only keep those for 7 years. I do not want this to go onto my credit and be made to pay this. To the best of my recollection this debt was paid 10 years ago! Can they do this? No communication for 10 years?! PS the address on file was my mother inlaws who lives in the same house and she never received anything. HELP what do I do???
Craziness in AZ

[zippysgoddess]

Okay, first off, no, at this time they can not put it on your credit, it can only be on their 7 and a half years from the date of first delinquency, which would be when the last charge or payment was made on the account. It is well pas the time period they could have had it on your CR's, if they try to put it on now, they are in violation, they apparently missed their chance for that.

Secondly, it is not your responsiblity to prove anything for this bill, it is their's, send them a validation letter insisting they provide proof that this is your/your husbands debt and that is was not paid or was denied payment by the insurance you had at that time. Send it CMRRR and keep copies of all correspondence. Don't agree to anything verbally, insist that everything be in writing.

The problem that you are mainly faced with is that the Statute of Limitations may not be up yet for this debt, an open account in Illinois has a 5 year SOL, this is the length of time they have in which they can file a lawsuit for this debt. If you only lived there for another 4 years after the default and then moved, the SOL stopped counting, so they can still file a suit in court.