Attempting to collect debt...

[somethingclever]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Oregon
I currently live in Oregon and my ex-husband was residing in Idaho until recently. I have reason to believe that he has left the country and is now living in Italy (he is, however, an American citizen). I have been trying to collect a debt from him for over a year and a half, on which he has paid approx. $300 - the first was a personal loan for $1100 and the second is back-due taxes for 2006 that I am still currently paying off, as I don't want my assets seized. The taxes are owed from his income - I paid the taxes on my income from my employer's automatic cut and then some. There was a verbal agreement that he would pay the rest of the taxes for 2006, and he made one payment in May 2007, but stopped after that. I'm trying to figure out how to get my money back from him. I've been unable to get a mailing address - since he's likely out of the country, he's assuming that I won't be able to sue him. Is it true? Should I just write this off as a massive loss and hope to never deal with this again? The total amount of the debt is just over $6,000. Any info would be appreciated. Thank you!

 

[Antigone*]

My opinion is that you cut your losses. You're wasting your time. If circumstances change and he comes back then things might be different.

 

[dcatz]

Simply to add substance to what Wirelessany1 has said, a majority of states adopted the Uniform Foreign Country Money Judgments Act. Oregon is one that has.

To make a treatise-length answer short, for that to be meaningful for you (1) you would have to sue the ex in Italy, according to the laws of that country (requiring that you have foreign counsel), (2) you would have to obtain a judgment under those laws (we will assume that it is a default judgment; you’re not going there for $6K) and (3) we would have to assume that there were enforceable assets remaining in the U.S.

That’s a lot of assumptions but, if it still makes sense to you, the next step is either to go to the Italian embassy for assistance in locating counsel or search yourself online. There are professional organizations listing such resources in foreign countries. You can find such collection attorneys using Google (I tried to make sure). I’m not going to “plug” any particular one here.