Demand of Payment of Installment Note

[pleaseadviseme]

What is the name of your state? Illinois

I'm the holder of an Installment Note in the amount of about $8500.00 dated April of 2003. It calls for monthly payments to be made of a set amount with interest charged on the unpaid balance. The note is to my husband and me personally. The note was drawn up at an attorney’s office by the attorney and witnessed by him as well. The note does not state what the debt is for it just states the amount and terms. The individual who owes the money is was a friend of mine and an old business partner. He made 3 payments within the first 6 months or so. Between then and June 2005 I emailed reminders and request to which I kept getting responses that he would catch up on payment as soon as he could afford it. I decided to take action by sending a demand letter in June 2005 and he replied that he was coming into some money and would catch up on payments. I have still not received any more payments. Now he has gone to a lawyer and has contested the installment note. I'm being asked by his lawyer to provide all of the details of how the dollar amount of the note was arrived at and the supporting documents. They have sent me a stack of canceled checks that they claim are their supporting documents that they use in court against me. The problem is that the checks are all dated prior to the note and are not to me personally but to our old business partnership that closed in 2001. The only checks they provided that seem to be relevant at all are the same ones that I have applied to the note already. In fact I show one more payment then they do.

If he signed the note in front of a witness and has made payments, how can he now contest it? And, how can the checks made out to an old business dated before the date of the note be used to contest the amount of the note since the note doesn't say what the debt is for? Didn't he by way of signing the note and making payments verify the legitimacy of the note?