New York State

I'm being harasses by a law firm acting as a collection agency on a debt they say I owe from 12 years ago. It is not true. They recently sent me a summons to answer within 20 days. Do I have to answer them on some legal form or can I just send a certified letter. How can I get them off my back? They know the laws and are using them to their advantage. Along with the past harassing calls and there denial of my answers to them already they need to be stopped and I don't know how to. They originally threatened to ruin my credit and my reputation by phone.
Any help would be appreciated.

If what they sent you is a summons, then that means they have filed a law suit against you and if you don’t send an “answer” to the summons, you could lose the suit by default. An “answer” is a written response to the plaintiff's complaint in a civil suit in which he or she may deny any of plaintiff's allegations, offer any defenses, and make any counterclaims against the plaintiff, cross-claims against other defendants, or third-party claims against third parties otherwise not involved in the lawsuit. You might get some ideas on this by posting a question on our "litigation" bulletin board.

As for the harassment, I suggest you follow this link [url]http://bankruptcy-law.freeadvice.com/credit_problems/debt_collection.htm[/url] to material on the federal Fair Debt Collection Act, which tells you what debt collectors can and can not do and what you can do to stop them from harassing you.