Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Illinois
Loaned a friend more than 5k about 5 years ago based on his so called destituteness. Just recently while going through some of his things he left in my home, we found out he had been lying about his need for money. As it turns out he had been gambling for the past 5 years, buying jewlry & furniture for girlfriends, opening accounts and them defaulting on the payments. He said if we sue him for the money, he would file bankrupcy... we found out this would be his 3rd time filing bankruptcy since 1990. It appears he has a habbit of running up debt & never finish paying for it. We came to the conculsion that he has been biding time, in order to file bankruptcy. When we asked for a payment, he would alway say, I don't have any money. What can we do? We're from Illinois. Thank you and kind regards,
1 Answer from Attorneys
Do you have a signed, written loan agreement, or only a verbal contract to repay the $5K loan? What was the date of your loan? When was the loan to be repaid in full? What interest rate was agreed on? Was it discharged in bankruptcy? What state does your friend now live in? What state were you living in when you loaned him the $5K?
You could file a lawsuit to recover the loan, but you would have to answer these questions, among others. Even if you won a judgment against this friend, you would still have to go back to court to discover what assets he had that you could seize or garnish to recover your judgment and costs, including possible attorney fees, sheriff summons, court filing fees. You could spend more than $5K in all your costs trying to recover this $5k debt.
You should consult an experienced attorney to get a clear understanding of the facts, and law. Then you can decide if you want to file a lawsuit or write this debt off as a bad experience.
This answer is provided as a general public service, and does not create an attorney-client privilege.
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