My wife and I live in NJ. She has recently gone through some tough times with work and as a result has fell behind on some of her bills.

One of her larger bills has been sold to a collection agency. My wife had a conversation with one of their managers last week who told her that she must pay $1,000 dollars by Friday, or the account was going to an attorney who would automatically add $2,500 to the bill, and then take us to court and file a judgement.

My wife explained that she doesn't not have that money just lying around and explained her work situation. This manager told her to do a check over the phone for payment by Friday (this would apparently hold the attroneys at bay), and then told her to call the bank and put a stop payment on the check. I have serious reservations about this.

Is this legal?

Never do anything they want, have them put it in writing, nothing less.