Staute of limitations for how long a past employer can claim credit card charges were inappropriate?

immto

immto

New Member
Jurisdiction
Illinois
.



.






I used to work for my father-in-law's small business. Now that my wife and I are getting divorced, my (Soon to be ex) mother-in-law keeps coming after me for money I supposedly owe them. She started off with something like $22,000.00 but has no grounds for this at all. Now she's going through credit card charges from years ago and keeps trying to tack on items she feels were "personal", but so far I've been able to get her to drop most of them. Now she has found something that I do not remember at all, and she's claiming this was not approved. The charges are from 2012 for something like $800 and she's threatening to take me to small claims court over it. Do I even need to be worried about this?
 
Theoretically, she can "claim" forever but a statute of limitations applies only to how long one has to file a lawsuit.

In IL the SOL on an oral agreement is 5 years. It's 10 years on a written agreement.

If you used the credit card with permission and failed to pay it back then, yes, a lawsuit within 5 years of the default is something to worry about.

Worse, if you used the card without permission that's something like embezzlement and you could still be subject to criminal prosecution if the amount taken is at the felony level.

That you don't remember it doesn't mean it didn't happen so I suggest you demand documentary evidence from her before going forward. She could just be bluffing.
 
army judge said:
Only YOU know IF you should WORRY about anything or something.


She is certainly well within the SOL for IL:

Statutes of Limitations in All 50 States | Nolo.com

IL small claims:

Illinois Attorney General - Small Claims Court
Click to expand...

By Worry about it, I meant can she even still do this? I legitimately do not know what the charges are she is referring to. I purchased a lot of stuff back then and don't remember each and every job I did. All I know if that I do not have the stuff in question, nor did I ever use it. So basically she can show a credit card statement with said items on it, and claim said items were for personal use, all I can do is say they were not. It was over 3 years ago and I no longer have access to any of the systems in question so it's not like I can provide any further information. All I do have is a long email conversation with her showing that she's been trying to get me to pay these "debts" and each time I point out how they are inaccurate. Now she's found something I cannot prove one way or another. I don't even know how I would go about trying to fight it, it's basically my word against hers.
 
adjusterjack said:
Theoretically, she can "claim" forever but a statute of limitations applies only to how long one has to file a lawsuit.

In IL the SOL on an oral agreement is 5 years. It's 10 years on a written agreement.

If you used the credit card with permission and failed to pay it back then, yes, a lawsuit within 5 years of the default is something to worry about.

Worse, if you used the card without permission that's something like embezzlement and you could still be subject to criminal prosecution if the amount taken is at the felony level.

That you don't remember it doesn't mean it didn't happen so I suggest you demand documentary evidence from her before going forward. She could just be bluffing.
Click to expand...

The card was in my name and I always used it with permission. The problem here is that they (The Company) never had any kind of balancing procedure. There were a few times the card was used (With Permission) to make purchases that were not strictly for business use, but no arrangements were ever made for me to make purchases and then pay them back.
 
She CAN do it because she IS doing it. And she CAN sue you in small claims court because she is still within the statute of limitations for a lawsuit.

However, even in small claims court a judge will require evidence not just sayso.

So be careful what you say in all those emails, you may have already said too much. Frankly, my advice is to just ignore the lunatic and not respond to anything else she has to say (or write) to you.
 
adjusterjack said:
She CAN do it because she IS doing it. And she CAN sue you in small claims court because she is still within the statute of limitations for a lawsuit.

However, even in small claims court a judge will require evidence not just sayso.

So be careful what you say in all those emails, you may have already said too much. Frankly, my advice is to just ignore the lunatic and not respond to anything else she has to say (or write) to you.
Click to expand...
Actually, that's what I've been doing for the last few weeks. I've simply ignored her last two emails. I was just wondering if I needed to be ready to defend myself if she's crazy enough to try and take this to court. But like I already stated, I don't even know how I would defend myself aside from stating the truth as I know it.
 
You just need to wait & see if she does sue you - then you go to court & defend yourself to the best of your ability. Good luck.
 

Ask a Question

Share this page

Get a free case review from a lawyer
Back
Top