A couple of years ago, my son needed urgent dental treatment. The dentist we chose was confident that he could help my family. After quoting the amount of the cost of treatment (over $10,000) we said that we simply could not fulfill that amount. The dentist kept saying that he really wanted to help my son and that he would do everything to help him because he knew how urgent his dental needs were. He said that we could work out a payment arrangement. The monthly payments were staggering. My husband then found out that he had cancer and became so ill that he could no longer work. He lost his landscaping business and all of his equipment (including his truck). At the same time, my husband was given custody of his daughter who was removed from the care of her mother. I now was the only breadwinner for a family of 6. We ended up getting evicted because we could no longer afford our rent. We lost most of our belongings as we were now forced to live in a motel. We never recovered financially. I contacted the dental office immediately to make alternate arrangements. Between emails and phone calls, we never worked out a set payment arrangement. I left a couple of emails and phone messages with the dental office and soon enough, I never heard back. Well, a year and a half passes by without even a letter, a phone call, an email or anything. The dental office knew exactly all of my contact info, but soon stopped contacting me. I assumed that they had forgiven the debt due to my personal situation. Well, a year and a half passes by and all of a sudden I get a phone call at my office from a bill collector saying that I owed a $10,000 debt to this dentist. I was absolutely caught off guard. I have no idea how I can ever repay that as my situation has even worsened more since this whole crisis began. I am just wondering if anyone knows how long a dentist can come after someone (who had full intentions of making payment arrangements) when they haven't even given them a call, a letter an email or any kind of contact for over a year and a half? Can I fight this? I feel so distraught over this.

The dentist has every right to try and collect his $l0,000. Although I can't imagine what kind of dental work was going be done for that fee??

Your situation sounds like many others and although you have fallen on hard times, the fact remains you owe that money and if a judgment is passed against you in court you will have to pay. The statute of limitations doesn't even come into play here. The statute is six years from the last transaction. That is to say the creditor has six years to collect, after that time they cant.

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