Consumer Law, Warranties Contract signed at 17 years old.

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mmhosting

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Hello, I am a young kid who started up an Internet Business when i was 16, YEP (16 Years old). I am now 18 years old and over the last six months, my company has taken a dive where as my bills with my vendors have become past due to the extent where I have no money to pay. I don't want to file for bankrupty becuase I just don't want to end it that way. I do want to try to bring my company back up, (I don't want to give up) but the collection agencys are really getting the lawsuits against me. When I signed all long term contracts, I was only 17 years old. I just turned 18 in october 2000. If i were to be taken to court due to not paying the bills and the contract states, since I am NOT within legal age, do I have to pay? It sounds silly, but I don't think I can stand myself before a judge. Is the contract vaild still? I don't want to blow off these debts, (I do want to pay them-but at this time they don't want to give me any more extentions as they have bent over too much for me. ) What are my options. If bankrupty is the only option, what forms are open. I don't want my credit record to be screwed up. My company is corporated, If I resign my position and leave the company, can I still be held liable for the debt owed? I'm very young and I'm very stressed. I don't know what to do and I am trying to pay as much as I can, I sent out a check to one of the companies for half of what I own and they won't cash it unless its the full thing. I don't know what the problem is but if they knew what my standings where, mabe they would accept. Any suggestions, please reply. My qwest for sucuess in my goals have failed. Over 3 years of hard work. This is just killing me inside.

Thank you
 
Is your company incorporated and you signed on behalf of the corporation or was this your own business and your paid and received money personally? I'm assuming by your comment it means that it was incorporated. If you ran it like a company then I don't see how they can sue you personally. The corporation is a separate person and is bankrupt and you may be insulated. The issue of your age wouldn't even have to come up because we aren't talking about you, but about the corporation.

Things aren't so clear if you ran it like your own personal stuff, e.g. you put money you received in your own personal bank account. In those cases, if a company really thought it was worth their while to go to court (and it's expensive), it is possible they could "pierce the corporate veil" and sue you personally reasoning that your use of the corporation was just a front for your own person.

As always, much depends upon the specific facts.
 
Yes, the company is incorporated in IL. I run my company pretty clean, i pay taxes, I pay my employee and they pay taxes, I do not take money earned and put it in a personal checking account. I did some reading on Chapter 7 and chapter 11. My debt is hanging around $20k. All my debts happen to be many some ones. Like the largest debt I hae is only $3,500 - But than these people gave up. I am still paying off my CC and my bank loan. infact, I only have 3 more payments to my bank loan and i'm done (Which I can handle). Its just my vendors who i have lots of problems with. One vendor who I owe $1,400 to that is located in New York is saying that they are going to sue me. I'm not sure if they are just trying to scare me, but I dont' know if anyone would take it that far? But if they do sue the company, can they take any of my PERSONAL assets? or is it only the company's assets which can be retained. My company's assets are almost none. i'm running out of the basement of my parent's home. I'm a service based business. (My servers which I use are located in a data center and I rent it for a monthly basis). The only assets to the company are the 6 computers which I have. Not much to count on thats for sure. Sould I even worry about these small debts to these companies. If they ever reported credit. Would it go towards my personal credit or is it placed on my business credit.
 
You sound very educated and it's a good thing you did this cleanly. I tend to find that most of the debt collectors will say anything -- even unlawful -- to try to scare you into paying. The latest one I dealt with is more harrassment from one collection agency to a client where they sent him a "check" for half the debt if he pays the whole debt. For the umpteenth time we had to tell them that there was no debt and that the large corporation still hasn't fixed its computer glitch over a year later which billed my clients accidentally!

I can't say for sure since I don't know exact circumstances regarding your case, but if a corporation goes bankrupt they should not be able to go after your personal assets unless they can show that they should be able to pierce the corporation for the reasons stated. The assumption is that the corporation is a separate person, not you personally. For $1,400 I doubt it very highly -- that's small claims type stuff. From my recollection, Small Claims Court jurisdiction does not extend outside New York City. It would cost them several hundred dollars just to file. If you did everything through the business I don't see how they can file credit reports against you personally.
 
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