Ask Me Help Desk - Personal loan vs gift

I gave $2,000 to then-boyfriend to help him with general living expenses while he was studying to sit for the bar exam. I wrote 3 separate checks over 4 months, noting "loan" in the memo section of the check. We did not discuss any specific repayment terms but he assured me verbally that once he was done with the bar exam, he will be in a better financial position to pay me back. No written contract was drawn.

Right after the bar exam, he was recommended by the attorney who interviewed him as a part of the exam process, to "withdraw" his application due to the issues discovered during the background check that made him "unfit" to be a lawyer. He did withdraw his application and never sat for the bar exam again.

Soon after that, we broke up and I didn't talk to him for about a year. In January, he called and said that he has not forgotten about my help and trying to figure out how he can take care of it. He told me that he would contact me again by the end of January to let me know his plan. No contact since then. I emailed him several times after that to ask him about his plan. No responses. The last email I sent him in March, I told him that I want $400 per month for 5 months, starting April 1, 2008. And if I don't hear from him by the end of March, I was to take a legal action. He responded.. He said that his recollection of the events were clearly different than mine, insinuating that it was never a loan.

Can I still sue him even though we have no written contract? I only have cancelled checks and a series of emails to show my side of the story... Help!

Take him to small claims court. Your checks and emails should be able to win your case.

Yes, you can, the checks with the words loan on them, as well as the emails all add to your case.

Also for his information, there are many jobs for law school grads that do not take the bar, they work in legal departments in large corporations, they may also look into some areas where they take separate certifications such as unemployment or workers comp law.

Also he should consider trying for the bar, and not merlely stop because of one reviewers opinoin.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fr_Chuck

Yes, you can, the checks with the words loan on them, as well as the emails all add to your case.

Also for his information, there are many jobs for law school grads that do not take the bar, they work in legal departments in large corporations, they may also look into some areas where they take seperate certifications such as unemployment or workers comp law.

Also he should consider trying for the bar, and not merlely stop because of one reviewers opinoin.

In NYS if it looks like you cannot pass the background check you are advised not to take the exam so that a "passed but rejected" does not appear somewhere. There are also ways to correct a problem which results in rejection and other States may have different standards.

Lots of "attended law school but didn't sit the bar" people work for insurance companies, for example.

Of course, that's not the question! Yes, I would say with the checks and the emails you have a case, a good case. Go to Court and find out for sure.