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owing money - statue of limitation

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purple_lynn

Junior Member
What is the name of your state?
Missouri

This goes back a loooong time ago, but I wrote a check on behalf of my friend in Nov. 2001. My friend had to pay this landlord money and the due date was on that day, but she was out of town. So I had paid it for her, and she was going to mail me the check. She did, but the check bounced.

We've been trying to work through this, and in 2002 she paid me back twice, once in January and once in April. Then she fell behind on payment again.

We still tried to work through it, and in January of 2004, I had given her an e-mail with my address that she can send the money to, and she had confirmed my e-mail.

She still hasn't paid me back, so in May of 2004, I finally got a hold of her on the phone, and we decided that she would pay $50/month until she pays me back the rest of the money, which is $900.

Seeing that it's over a year from the last time we made an oral agreement, I'm now (finally...) thinking about taking it to the small claims court.

My only concern is that it's too late for me to take it to the court. I read somewhere that the statue of limitation is about 2 years, but I'm not sure if it's 2 years from when the check bounced, or from when we had our last 'agreement' over the phone.

Thanks in advance for any input.
 


purple_lynn

Junior Member
Blonde Lebinese said:
If you made a Verbal Agreement in 2004 , for 50 per Mo., why now are you wanting to go to small claims ?
Because she hasn't paid $50/month even though we agreed to it... I thought if she's told by a judge (instead of me trying to get her to answer the phone), she's more likely to start paying...

Is a verbal agreement over the phone enough for me to take actions in collecting money from her? What if she lies and says we didn't have a verbal agreement? I read that if someone still refuses to pay after the small court, they can take other actions. Am I to skip the process of small-court and go directly to that action of money-collecting?

I'm sorry if my questions are common sense... I'm a bit slow in this field >_<
Thanks for your help.
 

BL

Senior Member
I revised my Link , I mis-posted .

The Fact that she made payments ( if you can prove ) , you should have no trouble getting a judgment , IF you can prove the amount of debt .

If after you are awarded a Judgment , you could go to a Book store and Buy a Book on how to collect Judgments .

Garnishing wages is one way , Contacting a Collection Marshal may be another , Etc .

The Last resort if the person has property , is to file a registration of Judgment with the County's Clerks , but this would restrict you from all other collection procedures .

Get a Book and read it , If you are Granted an Award .
 

purple_lynn

Junior Member
5 years for debt... Longer than I expected. That should mean I should still be OK *whew*

Now all I have to do is gather information and actually sue her. Hopefully it won't be messy...

Thanks for your help! I really appreciate it.
 

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