A friend gave me $2500. Now she sent a lawyer after me because I stopped contact with her.

Question

I had a girl that was just a friend who kept buying me gifts and taking me out to eat. I had a little bit of trouble and was in need of $1450. She offered to give me the money because she was getting an inheritance and wanted to "help" me out. I told her that wasn't necessary and that I would get the money by other means. She insisted. I let her give me the money and she ended up writing me a check for $2500 and said the rest was for me to go shopping with. She wrote a hand written letter with the check that said "Don't worry about paying me back, just whenever you are able. And if there's any extra go buy yourself a pair of shoes, on me :)" She started being really weird and sent a letter to my house with no return address that told me she was in love with me. This was a 10 page hand written letter which she also emailed to me. She started following me around and I noticed she started showing up at every event I attended. I asked her to stop contact with me and asked her for an address to send her payment for the money she gave me because I didn't want it. She refused to give me an address and said I'd have to give it to her in person. Yesterday, 2 weeks later, I received a letter from a lawyer saying that we had an oral contract for me to pay her back that money and I have 30 days to pay in full or in payments of $250/month plus I have to pay $500 for the lawyer fee. Is what she's doing even legal? I'm not paying $500 for a lawyer when I was more then willing to give her the money without getting a lawyer involved.

Answer 1

I find this letter shady... if there actually is an oral contract, recalling from what you said, "Don't worry about paying me back, just whenever you are able." that would be part of the oral contract. So I say... ask for proof of oral contract from her lawyer.

Answer 2

Yes it's legal.  What you need to do is take her up on the offer of a trial.  Tell the judge that you just don't have the $ to pay her back in full but that you can make payments.  You will have to pay her back though because no one just gives someone $2500.00.  And you obviously knew it wasn't a gift because she said "Don't worry about paying me back, just whenever you are able" which to me sounds like she intended to collect eventually.  Do you have that letter and did she sign it?  If you tell the judge that story he will not sympathize with you, guaranteed it.  He or she will not care that she was in love with you or showed up places you were.  That is no reason to not pay someone back and has nothing to do with the case.

Answer 3

write back and tell her she said "orally" you could pay her back when you were able to - she can;t make you pay her lawyer fees. - with nothing written between you two about the money - she really doesn't have any kind of case - It's going to cost her a lot more than $2500 to get the money back if she keeps working thru a lawyer. pay her a little now ($50 if possible) and just start making payments "when you can", like she requested. don;t panic about this - she sounds like a psycho stalker feeling jilted because you didn't return her affection

Answer 4

an oral contract isnt worth the paper it isnt written on.

Answer 5

Contact the Lawyer.  Tell them that you have tried to pay it back several times, but she refused to give you an address of where to send it.  Tell them you'd be happy to send it to them, but you refuse to pay the $500.  She hired them, she can pay them.

I'd send them copies of any correspondence you have from her so they can see what the situation is.

Any contract for over $500 must be in writing to be valid.  You could just claim it a gift unless she has something in writing stating otherwise.

Further about the legal fees, she should have had a contract with you in which you agreed to pay legal fees if you lost a lawsuit.  So DO NOT pay the extra $500.  If they press the matter, threaten to call the police, and report them to the state Bar association.

Good luck and try to be more careful in the future.