Here's what I'm up against, I barrowed 3,500.00 doll. From my bro. inlaw in jan. of 2008 with the intent of paying it back in a month. Will the money that I was counting on to pay it back did not materialize and I ended up not being able to pay it back as promised. So we agreed that I would do work on their home and deduct the labor from the money owed, we are family so everything was done buy a hand shake only. Well then the economy went bad and work got slow and finances started getting short and a struggle began to support my family of five, ( Im the only source of income.) will in 2009 we all took a pay cut at work, and our health insurance went up which set me back 200.00 doll. A week more. Will I have not done any work for him in some months and he had been pressuring me to pay him 2,500.00 doll. That he says I still owe him. Which brings us to the problem, in the last phone conversation with him he told me that he didn't want to deal with it any longer so he said keep the money its yours and then that was the end of it so I thought. That was about three weeks ago, will I got served papers from small claims court that he filed against me for the money he told me to keep. I took it to heart that he had erased the dept, and know I feel that he did it intentionaly. What can I answer to this claim? He does have a copy of the check and it cashed by me. All I have is the memory that he said to keep the money it was mine. I would greatly appreciate some advise on this matter. Thanks so much for taking time to read this post.---zeke---