Confusing Collection Issue. PLEASE HELP

[cdeister]

I recently recieved a summons for court in the state of Kansas on a collection account. I am being asked to pay almost $1000 on a health club membership I had transferred over years ago. From the beginning... In Nov. 2003 I responded to a special radio offer at a health club. I agreed to start a membership that day and they extended the same offer to a person of my choice. I offered this to my mother. They wanted her to sign the contract that day and she wanted more time to decided if she wanted it. I had agreed to pay for her membership but they said SHE HAD TO SIGN IT. When my mother said that if she had to sign it that day then she didn't want it. So the gentleman said that if I signed on the bottom of the page (not on the signature line) that he could then hold the "offer" for one week to give her time to decide. My mom decided against it and never signed the offer. For 3 months they billed me for 2 contracts, even though there was only one. They said that when I signed it, it became a binding contract. In Jan. I transferred my membership to a friend and they still continued to bill me until June of 2004, at which point I told my bank not to allow the charges anymore. Come to find out they are still charging me for my contract which I transferred. They are telling me that the transfer was done with the "offer" I signed (they refer to it as a contract but I refuse to call it that). So basically they intentionally or unintentionally transferred something other than my contract and now want me to pay. I have a pre-trial date of May 8th this year. Basically I want to know if it is worth the effort to fight this. The case as I said before is in Kansas and I currently live in Georgia and will be moving to Colorado this summer. My husband is military so it's not like I can just run off to Kansas at any time. Also, is there any way to appoint my mother to appear for me? Oh and my mother and my friend have both agreed to provide notorized statements. My mother was on speaker phone when I was told I was signing to "hold the offer" and my friend, of course, to confirm he had agreed and was under the impression he was taking over my contract. I just don't really know what to do at this point. I don't want to pay them another penny but not sure if I have a case or not. I also figured up what I overpaid to them and that amount came out to $390.16 and am not sure how to go about filing a counter claim.