I was served with a small claims suit for a boat. The debt was incurred by my former spouse while legally married in the state of Oregon. The Plaintiff has not provided me with any information regarding the contract. After many discussions with the plaintiff he provided me with a copy of the (signatures only) on the contract without any contract details. I evaluated the signatures and the signature provided to me was not mine. The age of the debt is from 1999. According to the scheduled date we are not to bring legal representation to the hearing. This concerns me on many levels. My question is what is the statue of limitations on debts involving boats for the state of Oregon and if any, what suggestions do you have regarding actions that I should take at this point. Keep in mind I have no information or knowledge regarding the boat and am having very little assistance in being provided with any. I have sent 2 certified letters and a fax requesting the contract information.

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Originally Posted by tparlat

I was served with a small claims suit for a boat. The debt was incurred by my former spouse while legally married in the state of Oregon. The Plaintiff has not provided me with any information regarding the contract. After many discussions with the plaintiff he provided me with a copy of the (signatures only) on the contract without any contract details. I evaluated the signatures and the signature provided to me was not mine. The age of the debt is from 1999. According to the scheduled date we are not to bring legal representation to the hearing. This concerns me on many levels. My question is what is the statue of limitations on debts involving boats for the state of Oregon and if any, what suggestions do you have regarding actions that I should take at this point. Keep in mind I have no information or knowledge regarding the boat and am having very little assistance in being provided with any. I have sent 2 certified letters and a fax requesting the contract information.

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If it's your former spouse's debt and you didn't co-sign you have no liability/responsibility, same if the signature is a forgery. You would bring signature samples (driver's license, anything old to show you are not deliberately falsifying your signature) and depending on the amount of the debt, whether the signatures were witness, what proof of identity the person signing your name used, a handwriting expert could be brought in.

You should enter an answer - I don't know that your letters will constitute an answer.

In Oregon the Statute is 6 years. That's six years from the last activity on the account, not 6 years from when the account was opened.

I guess you are being sued in small claims court, hence no lawyers. Doesn't mean you can't bring in expert testimony though. Get soemone to sign an affadavits that they believe the signature is a forgery.