[Beckybryant38]

I borrowed a $1,000.00 from a finance company to help an ex friend that is on disability and she is refusing to pay the money back? Can I take her to court to get the money back?

[ebaines]

Sure - you can sue her in small claims court. You will have to argue that a contract existed between you and your friend under which she agreed to repay you. She will probably claim that the $1000 was a gift from you, not a loan, and so any evidence that it was not a gift will be essential to you winning. Do you have a written contract? Or perhaps emails or other evidence of the arrangement? If not, you will have to argue that an oral contract existed - are there any witnesses to the agreement?

[joypulv]

Just be forewarned that Small Claims doesn't force the person to pay, even when they lose the case. You are awarded the filing fee as part of the decision when you win, but if the friend never pays, you are out both. Some people don't care that they have a judgment against them. It gets more expensive to actually extract money from someone who doesn't pay.

[ScottGem]

Of course you can take her to court. As ebaines noted, you will need to prove that there was an agreement to repay you. The fact that you borrowed the money may convince a court it wasn't a gift. So I think you stand a good chance of winning. However, that is less than half the battle.

Once you get a judgement, you will still need to collect it. If this person is on disability, it is likely they have little if any income and little if any assets. Which may make collecting your major problem. This person may be what is referred to as judgment proof. This means that even if one gets a judgment against them, it may be impossible to collect.

Also, in the meantime, you still have to make payments on the loan otherwise your credit will be affected.

[smoothy]

Hope you learned something here. YOU are personally on the hook for this loan. Sure you can sue, as has been already pointed out, winning and collecting are two very different things.