On Jan 9, 2015 I received a bill for a doctor for services rendered in 2007. I never received a bill before from him. Am I obligated to pay ...

Question

On Jan 9, 2015 I received a bill for a doctor for services rendered in 2007. I never received a bill before from him. Am I obligated to pay this bill?

Answer

Unless you made payments on it in the past 6 years, no. That's beyond the statute of limitations. You may want to have a lawyer send them a "drop dead" letter.

Answer

Attorney Ashman is correct in the strictly legal sense. If services were rendered in 2007 and no payment has been made since that time, the statute of limitations has expired because its been over 6 years.

But then there is the moral aspect here. Are you obligated? Not in the legal sense but the statute of limitation is only a defense that is raised in court in the event that you are sued. It does not mean that the debt does not exist or that payment thereon cannot be requested.

And if you received the actual services and decide not to pay, that is a really crappy thing to

do. How would you like it if you provided a service to your customer and they did not pay you? Moreover, the doctor will be totally justified in refusing to provide you any further service until the old bill is paid. Maybe you don't care; there are plenty of other doctors. But if you make this a habit, word will eventually make its way around and you will run out of doctors to welch on.

Should you pay? Up to you. I make no judgments as to morals or lack thereof. If you decide to pay, I would recommend that you do it in the right way. You do not want this on your credit report if your credit rating is otherwise good. You could offer to do a pay for delete if all negative information about the debt is removed from your credit report (check your credit report first!). If you don't have the full amount but still feel obligated to pay something, then offer 25% to settle-in-full but in no even more than 50%. If you settle for less than the balance, get it in writing first. Make the payment by certified/cashier's check or money order and make a copy of it before you send it off. And don't send by regular or even certified mail; send only via UPS/FedEx so you can verify payment was received. Get a followup letter acknowledging the payment and that no further balance is owed and there will be no further collection efforts. Keep the letters and copy of the payment FOREVER.

Of course, there is always Attorney Ashman's suggestion as well - you can google sample "drop dead" letters (a drop dead letter in essence tells a creditor to "drop dead" because you are not paying the debt). Or you can hire an attorney like me or Attorney Ashman if he is willing to send one for you. Please contact me at [email protected]/* */ if interested in discussing this further.