Asked in Divorce and Collections for Oregon

Q: My husband's ex wife from 15 years ago had a medical bill while they were married they are coming after him to pay

In their divorce it said that she would have to pay her own medical bills and he would have to pay his but now after all this time the creditors are coming after him it's been so long and he didn't know she didn't pay and now the bill went from 6,000 to 16,000 what can we do this doesn't seem fair

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1 Lawyer Answer

A: It all depends upon the exact details. IF the creditor sued your husband and won in court, they would have gotten a Judgement against him. All Oregon Judgments are valid for 10 years and can be renewed once for an additional 10 years. So it is possible it is a collectable debt. If, however, they did not get a Judgement against him, he can likely tell them to leave him alone since it will likely be long past any statute of limitation. Be careful, however, to not pay them a penny until you are sure of your legal liability. Pay them anything and you risk reinstating the debt and starting a new statute of limitations to run again. If in doubt, review everything with a local collections attorney. IF they do not have an enforceable Judgment (presumably renewed once or it would have expired after 10 years and be invalid), you may have claims against them now for unfair debt collection practices - something your attorney can explain further to you

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