debt I don't owe!

[Calamity]

I am currently serving in the US Air Force and am stationed in the Republic of Korea. My husband is currently living in Hampton, VA. We moved to VA in 2003. In the fall of 2003 my husband began to take SCUBA instructor certification from a local dive shop. He and the shop owner made a verbal agreement that he would pay for his courses, books and equipment partly in cash and partly in labor. Over the course of 2 years he had no issues and kept the account balance to what he thought was about 500.00 with a combination of payment by check/debit and labor. Unfortunately the shop owner passed away in 2005 leaving the business to his spouse. She was familiar with the verbal agreements, and had been involved in the secretary/bookeeper role prior to our arrival in VA. My husband made several attempts to view his receipts (all handwritten) to settle any debt with her. He was always told don't worry about it. In the summer of 2005 she mailed him a bill for 1,200.00. He felt he did not owe this much money and requested she show him the original receipts in order to review the debt. She refused and said he could see them AFTER he paid the debt. Not being that stupid, he declined. All of this debt was in his name up to this point. He refused to pay until she showed the receipts and eventually she refused to let him come into the store. In 2006 she sent another hand written bill and added my name to the debt. She also added 24.99 % interest to the bill and back dated the interest to 2005. I consulted an attorney on base, and he informed her that I would charge her with fraud if she did not remove my name from the debt. Last week my husband received another bill in both our names threatening to file a warrant in debt on us. I obviously can't fly back to VA to answer this, and we feel the debt and interest are not valid. We are both legal residents of Florida. Where do we go from here?

[Chien]

From your post, it would appear that she is wrong or "in the wrong" about several things, but your question was "where do we go from here"?

If you can't talk to her and can't resolve things informally, you may have to wait until she sues and then both defend and cross-complain. Perhaps a letter to her explaining this and that you've consulted with counsel and will proceed accordingly but are still willing to discuss it informally, will make her more cooperative. Obviously, if she sued, you would have discovery rights to all the records that you're asking for now and more. It wouldn't be a good judgment call on her part.

So I think that you're "on hold" until she acts BUT, at the same time, you want to independently ensure that she is not reporting this "debt" to credit reporting agencies and thereby wrongfully and intentionally damaging your credit. If you found that was happening, you should pursue all of the rights given you under the FCRA and dispute any record, but I would argue that it would also give you a separate civil right against her for damages for wilfull and malicious credit disparagement.

All that said, to me this sounds like a perfect case for mediation. A problem is that she has to voluntarily agree to participate. But "getting her to the table" is part of the job of a good mediator. In addition to constantly monitoring CRAs and/or "waiting for the other shoe to drop", your husband might want to look into the availability of mediation services. There are often community organizations that have skilled "neutrals" for a very small expense.