Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Maryland

Re: small claims

Unfortunately, when you agreed to help your "friend", you exposed your credit to just what has happened. The understanding between you and the friend is of no consequence to the creditor. If the debt is delinquent they can place it on your credit record, and until paid it will have an adverse effect on your credit rating. Hopefully your filing a small claims action (presumably against the friend) will at least enable you to get back whatever you have to pay to the creditor. By the way, the creditor's records will not reflect who made the payments, only that they were made. Make sure you get a receipt from the creditor if you plan to pay off the balance, hopefully showing the account the payment came from. If you paid by check, you should have cancelled checks or photocopies of them from your bank. Otherwise you can testify as to how much of the debt you paid.